We went on a religious trip yesterday. Our main destination was Sri Naina Devi. The strange thing I have noticed about the worship of the Mother Goddess is that in all hilly areas throughout India, the Mother Goddess or her consort Shiva are worshipped. For instance all Devi shrines in Himachal, Chamundeshvari in Mysore, Kailash Mansarovar. What is it about heights that inspires the worship of the cosmic destroyer & his spouse?
The good news is that Juju has overcome his fear of airplanes and enjoyed the cable car ride to the top. Oju however did not like getting cloistered in the brass railings leading up to the shrine. It did not help that it was pretty crowded & it took about an hour for us to go from the eantrance to the shrine. Oju conveyed his displeasure by bawling for half an hour & banging his head against the railings & my head alternately.




The beauty of the place however was breathtaking. I managed to click this picture of this beautiful Himachali bride with the typical lovely huge nose ring.
Then we went on to Nangal famous for the Bhakra dam where my husband grew up. There were many sighings & oohings & aahings on his part when he saw his school and the house he had lived in & the grounds in which he had played cricket.












In Nangal, we visited the scenic Gurudwara Bibhor Sahib where the 10th Sikh Guru wrote an important part of the Sikh scriptures. The views of the Sutlej river from the gurudwara are lovely.















N.B. The blue here is water not the sky

Study Plans :-) ...

I am planning on taking the Oracle certification exam. Which means that I have to cram about 1000 pages of exam guides + product documentation. This instead of overwhelming me, excites me a little(the overwhelmed phase will follow shortly, dont worry). I just love to make study plans. I even know my "absorption rate" - which is about 10 pages of technical sludge per hour. So, as soon as I get my certification guide which incidentally isnt available in my town, I will actually count the number of pages (:D HA HA HA - I know - how juvenile) & make study plans to the day. Only my legs turn to jelly when my husband asks me to register for the exam. Of course I never can stick to the study plan what with the kids needing care or sheer unwillingness. Back when exam dates used to be fixed, this is where the overwhelmed came in. How I managed to make it through school & college always underprepared is a miracle.

Alrighty then, wish me luck as I take on this here certification.

A move in the right direction...
My friend, who was also my manager till I started my sabbatical( no, I am not an academician - I am a software professional - but more about me later...), is joining Vikram Akula.
I must say, it makes me really proud of him. It is a strange feeling living in India. While one lives comfortably in one's upper middle class cocoon, one cannot escape the sight of poverty & sheer neglect all around. While random acts of kindness like donating clothes, money etc may make one feel good, but they can never be enough. What we need is organized effort like what Akula is doing.

Costume Ball...
Gee - I hope young Oju is not too annoyed with me when he grows up (for posting these yummy pictures of him).
This is Oju dressed up in his aunt's jwellery & dupatta.












This is him in his woolly turban that my mum knit for him.












I made his hair into little pigtails one hot afternoon.

Wish I could de-jinx the current situation...
Much is said by internet mums on the subject of jinxing one's good fortune by speaking (blogging) about it. Though I am extremely un-superstitious, I now wish I could work this in reverse. It's the kids. Since about mid-August last year, one or the other has been really sick & I dont mean colds or coughs & the like. First, young Oju had bacterial tummy infection, then Juju fractured his foot, then Oju had chest congections for a whole month & a half & lost a lot of weight & even had dark circles under his eyes. That sorted out, Juju had pneumonia that lasted a month & he had fevers > 101 nearly the whole of december. As soon as he finished fighting that, he was down with bacterial tummy infection & I remember the toilet paper getting smudged with bright red blood when I wiped his bottom. Then this month, Juju has again had tonsilitis accompanied with fever which I & Oju picked up. Oju's current chest X-ray shows a little chest infection which we are treating with anti-biotics.
Phew! there!!! A sordid tale if there ever was one. I want to be strong for the kids. I want to pooh-pooh their anxieties. I want to tell them "Bah - it's just a little fever. I used to get them all the time when I was a kid. You'll be fine." I do it as often as I can. But can you blame me if my heart beats at about 300 beats per minute - literally flutters like a bird - eveytime Juju is even a little irritable? Do you blame me if I surreptitiously place my hand on the kids' foreheads or check their tummies many times every day to see if they are running a temperaure? Also, I am guilty as charged for smothering them with woolies.
I do hope things start to look up soon or I am sure to have, as my friend says, a NBD (nervous breakdown)