Nothing but my Views & Rants

“It made me write an essay about it”

Chintan — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:21:30 +0000

I’m constantly telling my 7+ year old son that if he does not behave well, people will say his parents have not taught him anything. I was repeating my litany when he was off for a sleep over when he blew his top. “Why do you keep on saying that? I already know it. It is deeply embedded in my brain, so much so that I wrote it in an essay”

This is how the said essay “Why we need good manners” went. “If you do not have good manners, people will say your parents have not taught you anything. You will feel bad if people say bad things about your parents. You will grow up with bad manners and your children will not learn good manner. Then people will say your children don’t have good manners since you haven’t taught them anything so you will feel bad again”

We are better off than the US govt we $12 for discretionary spending :-)

Chintan — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:15:02 +0000

Yesterday the baby sitter announced, she wants more money. This is one in the many increases that we have been subjected to in the past couple of months. My company became a subsidiary of another company so medical insurance went up by 50% while company contribution was401K was cut by 50%. The spouse’s tuition went up 40%. The baby sitter’s announcement broke the camel’s back.

The spouse and I sat down with a pen and paper to see what was the family income and how much we spent. We tried to account for everything other than healthcare(copay, medicine etc) and diapers and we were left with $12.

There is reason to cheer, we are better off then the US government.

It’s Strange……..

Chintan — Thu, 05 May 2011 13:05:02 +0000

when you get flirted with for the first time EVER
I’m 36 and it has never happened before. It took me a minute to realize what was happening.
Am I being bad by saying that it brightened my morning?

The little man ain’t little no more :-)

Chintan — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:17:52 +0000

The little man flew to India last month with his dad. They are scheduled to come back next week. He doesn’t want to but that is story for another day.
He got a chance to visit with his grandparents i.e. my parents, and aunts, my younger sisters. I knew he would grow attached to them but what happened was totally unexpected. My husband told me yesterday that he is very proud of his son. It seems while watching the evening news when my son heard that there were floods in Mumbai, he was all concerned for my sister who works in Mumbai. He called up his grandmother and got his aunt’s number from her. He then called my sister to ask her how she was doing and was she staying safe during the flood!!!!!!!!!!!!. He turns 6 and half in a week and looks like he has already grown up.

……….Or May Be Not

Chintan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:47:01 +0000

“Girls drink too much and are slutty” is what I heard from my almost 6 year old’s mouth early this morning. And where did he pick it up? From the radio. I had National Public Radio on while driving him to school. Since the fall fund raiser is on the program content is vastly reduced, so I switched to another FM channel and got to hear in the news “school bus driver jailed for having sex with girl student”. I quickly changed the channel to one of my husband’s favorite since my son likes the songs on that channel. I was not paying attention to was the announcer was saying until I heard my son laugh aloud. I asked what happened and he said “girls drink too much and are slutty”. I’m sure he doesn’t understand the words, but just that he heard it due to my carelessness make me want to howl.

We must be doing something right

Chintan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:58:30 +0000

Since I got to hear a number of praise for my son. One parent whose child is in my son’s class called me to say if we could meet since she wanted to talk about him. I was worried that he may have misbehaved with her chilld. When I met her Saturday at a school function I was pleasantly surprised to hear, that she was astonished to see how focussed my son was in school. She volunteers at his school and said in all her years of volunteering and also seeing her own children and their friends, she has never met such a focussed child. She wanted to know what we did special with him.
Parents of children from his swim team told me that he is a very good role model for younger children!!!!. He is five and half himself, younger children than him having a role model sounds strange, but it seems when other older children in the team misbehave he tells the younger ones not to emulate them.
Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fake Notes Racket

Chintan — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:43:18 +0000

I came across this article in The Times of India about fake notes. I was reminded of my first trip back home. I had gone to State Bank of India to convert some dollars. I think I got some bundles of Rs 100 notes. I took one of those bundles to Air India office to buy a ticket. The person on the counter showed one note told me it was fake. I asked how he knew. He showed me the reverse side of the note which was crisscrossed and had fake written in capital letters. I was mortified. I took the rest of the bundle back and stormed to the SBI branch where I had got the money the previous day.

When I complained at the information desk, I was told to wait so that they could get the proper person to talk to me. I was shocked beyond words when the branch manager came and said he was planning to call the police and get me arrested. He said I was trying to cheat the bank, by showing the fake note. I had my passport with me and showed it to the manager and told him I worked abroad and that Rs 100 did not mean much to me, but imagine some person with a meagre incoming finding fake Rs 100 in his salary. He surely would be devasted. Instead of saying he would investigate, he threatened to make a case against me so that I could never leave the country! Being a regular Indian citizen, who takes all kinds of crap dished out to her by the system, I went home quietly.

You will always make mistakes……..

Chintan — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:41:37 +0000

.. as a parent. I loved this article that talks about two extremes. I see myself in this kind of situation all the time.

No Comics, No Pants

Chintan — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:47:00 +0000

My son has come up with a new form of protest. He wanted to read all night. When I switched off the lights he grumbled and came to sleep(My husband or I have to sleep next to him till he drops off to sleep), I started patting him to sleep and hit a bare bottom. I asked him where were his jammies? He proclaimed “No comics, no pants!!!!!!!!!!!!!”.

School Report 2008-2009

Chintan — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:17:22 +0000