Cyn's Adventure in India

The wet room

2010-03-18T17:30:00.002+05:30

In India you are more likely to hear someone say that they are going to take a bath, rather than having a bath. You should also know that in India taking a bath do not involve a bath tub at all, and in most case not even the shower head, taking a bath is the action of washing oneself. In most places a "bath" involve a bucket of water (warmed water if you have a heater) and a plastic mug, you

Tulsi and the "tulsinator"

2010-02-24T10:17:00.004+05:30

The plant above is known as tulsi in India and is belonging to the family of basil, in fact Holy Basil is one of its other name. Every Hindu household has to have one tulsi plant that will be worshiped by the ladies of the house, the reason being that this plant has various medicinal properties, the most famous being to help relieve the symptoms of cold as well as reducing stress levels.DH and I

Dear Anonymous,

2010-02-20T10:38:00.003+05:30

Dear Anonymous commenter on my blog, who posted two rather crude, insensitive comments in improper grammatical English on both my "Cheese-a-holic in no cheese land, and "Do you have a cook" entries.I do not like your insulting close minded tone, and further comments will be deleted. You obviously didn't read my blog for long, and not only MISINTERPRETED the content, you are accusing me of being a

Silly tourist picture

2010-02-02T20:04:00.002+05:30

Manali has become a touristic destination and with all the fun not too rip off tourist trap, 7 years ago when I first went there I took one of me in a traditional costume, this time I decided to take a Yak tour. There were one or two posing for pics the first time I went, now it is a whole heard of them that crowds a small enclosure behind Hadimba temple, along with souvenir stalls, trampoline

Cloth diapers VS Disposable...the neverending debate

2010-01-28T08:00:00.002+05:30

When I attended the prenatal classes, the lady bluntly said "Don't use disposable, they are bad for Indian babies in this climate" And I couldn't help but thinking "There is goes, the debate remains open"First of all for my non-indian reader, the cloth diapers here aren't the new generation of cute leak proof washable things you find in the west, nope, it is a cotton square cloth in which you

Food for thought

2010-01-27T14:31:00.002+05:30

In the past few years there is one thing that always puzzled me about kids and meal time around here. I have several neighbours with babies and toddlers around, all are Indian, and what I observed is that mothers gnerally carry their kids on the hip until extremly late in age, most seem to feed their tots on the roof of their house or in the street in a standing position. I don't see anything

Baby takes Manali

2010-01-20T17:58:00.002+05:30

First of all : Happy New Year!We spent the holidays up North and took the road from Delhi to Manali where we spent a week and then headed to Lucknow to seen DH's parents before heading back to Bangalore. And we found out that Ishita is a quite a natural at travelling, Air, Rail, road, she will take it all without a fuss. And apparently the cold climate isn't bugging her as much as it bothered me,

How much censorship is ludicrous censorship?

2009-11-26T19:48:00.002+05:30

Watch TV in India and it doesn't take long to notice that movies, and TV series are getting "edited" when things start being a bit to PG-13 or R-rated, no matter what the original rating was. 5-6 years ago the only words getting beeped were "fuck" and "shit", a naked butt would be blurred, a too deep cleavage would get the same treatment, a lady punching a guy in the nut (as in Sister Act) would

The ultimate baby gear list

2009-11-22T21:35:00.002+05:30

Now I have some time, and I've been thinking about this one for a while so I better get to it and strike the iron while still hot (or in this case baby sleeping and mommy not too pooped out).I finally decided to put a list of all the essentials you need and when you need them, sounds silly since zillion books and websites might give you lists, but this one is based on my experience (limited I

No matter what the package is, evil remains bad.

2009-11-16T10:53:00.002+05:30

I got to read the Sunday paper a bit late, but the magazine section which usually have well written pertinent article was no exception, here is one that should raise serious question, I know it confirmed what I always thought : http://www.hindu.com/mag/2009/11/15/stories/2009111550250400.htmI urge you guys to read it, but if you really don't have time to spare, here is a summary : It's about a

Around the world in 80 wipes

2009-11-11T21:17:00.002+05:30

Or less...The arrival of a baby makes you discover a whole new world of products: Baby hygiene items. Diapers, lotion, powder, wipes...wait a second, wipes are by far the most fascinating around here. Who would have thought there were so many brands to begin with, and what's more, all of them seem to be imported, I swear I could find a wipe from each country if I were looking hard enough, here is

Baby Monitor woes

2009-11-04T10:18:00.002+05:30

Remember when I was writing about my newly purchased baby monitor? The woe is not about it's functionality but rather the fact that they are sold with only one AC adaptor for 2 units and use a lot of 9v batteries. And boy does this thing eat batteries fast, even a Duracel battery last no longer than 2.5 nights! DH observed that there must be a way to get a second adaptor, so first he went doing

Baby takes the city

2009-10-27T18:09:00.003+05:30

Again, sorry for not updating much, the past two weeks were busy with a visit from my mom, who came all the way from Switzerland to meet her grand daughter and celebrate Diwali with us. I also decided not to play Mrs festive Grinch and go on and on about the total abuse of firecrackers during Diwali which surprisingly wrought my nerves more than Ishita's.Nope I will talk about Ishita's big take

Baby to Mommy... do you copy?

2009-10-03T18:24:00.002+05:30

Sorry for not updating much, I quite obviously had my hand full. Ishita is doing great and just last week was upgraded to the travel bed and bassinet in our bedroom to her own wooden crib in the other room which is great because the travel bed was taking a lot of space in our room. But in order to make the transition to the big bed we needed one piece of baby gear more: The baby monitor!Well from

The tale of two India

2009-08-26T14:11:00.002+05:30

I'm a regular reader (ok subscriber) of the magazine "Mother & Baby" which is a gold mine of information and tips for moms and moms to be. This August edition was of course dedicated in large part to India's Independence with lots of patriotic articles, one of these was called "Mother India" and had the testimony of ladies of all walk of life living in India about what is best about being a mom

How to use pink wisely

2009-08-24T16:58:00.003+05:30

Pink has long been associated with girls and babies, my generation practically rebelled at the sight of a pink t-shirt when reaching the critical and idiotic age of 13 (sweet teenagehood I so not miss you). Yet ironically it's my generation that is now the prime target for electronic items and all major brand have pink as part of their palette, pink laptops, pink iPods, pink camera, pink phones..

One day of solo parenting

2009-08-21T22:29:00.002+05:30

DH had to go for a short business trip leaving me in charge of the ship and undisciplined crew (dog and baby). Here is what it looks like : Thursday, 6am: Wake up to Jasmine (dog) slowly pushing her furry butt in my sleepy face to make me understand that dawn has already broken and that the time to open the door to the terrace is starting to be overdue. Sleepy me sleepwalk myself to the door,

What having a baby does to you

2009-08-13T15:03:00.002+05:30

Well if you thought that you would resume a normal life after delivering your bundle of joy into the world, you are in for a few surprises because it seems that the labour and delivery pain not only brings a new life in this world, it seems to affect all kind of changes in you as well, so that by the end of it you aren't human anymore...nope you became super-human and here are a few things I

Bangalore babies all set for...

2009-08-04T12:17:00.002+05:30

A trek in the Himalayas!No seriously this is something that always puzzled me, no matter the temperature or the weather condition you will see parents holding a baby wearing a thick outfit, a beanie hat, scratch mits, a receiving blanket and a thick quilt or thick fleece blanket, and I bet there are socks I can't see as well, never mind that the temps are well in the 30's Celsius degrees, the

So....I had a baby

2009-07-21T14:11:00.003+05:30

It happened on July 6th which also happens to be our wedding anniversary, but we wouldn't have known that until the last moment as it was a close call.The contractions started on July 5th at 3am, and were not to close to each other or intense, all through the day they went more and more regular, and it is at 6pm that I reached the 10 minutes gap which meant "drive to hospital" so DH and I went on

Children's wisdom beat all

2009-07-01T12:31:00.002+05:30

This weekend DH and I had a visit from his brother, wife and two kids, they stayed over for the night of Saturday to Sunday, and we yet again made good use of our sofa/cum bed, which has been an abused piece of furniture since we bought it in 2006. It was when sofa cum bed was still a new notion around town, and we paid the high price for our "futon sofa" (you now find them everywhere in Infantry

Creation's aberration

2009-06-21T02:18:00.003+05:30

Since the hormones decided to turn the natural night owl that I was before into someone who can't even find sleep once the sun sets I might as well do something a bit more productive of my extra wake time than simply tossing and turning and loosing my marbles.Tonight, my mission seems to be to make other night creatures' life miserable. Until now I thought that the title of "creation's aberration

The stage is set

2009-06-20T18:49:00.002+05:30

And now we are all waiting for the show. According to most books, my OB, and about everybody in the know, once you pass the 37 weeks marker, baby can safely make their big entrance anytime, and I'm about ready for that. The essentials have been purchased (and I'll have to reflect on the cost of bringing a new life in the world one day), I completed my antenatal program (and the last 2 sessions

The Axe Effect

2009-06-15T16:21:00.005+05:30

In the history of commercials done to promote deodorant or perfume, Axe is probably the only one who found the right formula by not only selling the product to the obvious consumer : men, but also to their significant other or potential partners.Yes I'm a woman and not ashamed to admit that each time they come with a new fragrance and therefore commercial I'm wondering what that deodorant might

2nd Antenatal class

2009-06-08T17:17:00.002+05:30

Another Saturday, another class, this time it was the one about introduction to pregnancy and labor given by the head physiotherapist and the one partners are to attend as well. Being at 35+ weeks I of course experienced most the symptoms so there wasn't anything new to me, plus I also read quite a few website articles and book to know more or less what to expect, DH though learned a few things