Vaccination.

Ashu got her vaccination shots yesterday for MMR and Chicken pox. One in each arm. :(

Anyway, just thought to write some stuff as a reminder for myself. It might help young parents in India too.

1.Dress the child right. If the shot is going to be administered in the arms, make them wear a sleeveless top or some top in which the sleeves can be easily rolled up. Otherwise it is a pain to taken them off and even more painful to put them on again when the child is screaming her lungs off. Unlike in Europe or US, here they don't remove the clothings of the child. They even weigh the child with the clothes on!

2. Try to buy the vaccines,syringe, etc.. the previous day itself. Some vaccines you might have to store in the fridge, so ask the Doctor about it. Also the paediatric medicines or vaccines are usually not available in all the medical shops. You get them only in the medical shops the Doctor suggests or the ones near the Doctors clinic/hospital. If the Dr's appointment is before 9 am, then the chances of the medical shop being closed is more. So check out the timings.

3. Finish off all the formalities before the child gets the shots. Ask all the Q's you want, get the appointment for the next visit, get the prescription, write down all the details of the vaccination. Even pay the fees. Because once the child gets the shots, all you would want is to get out.

4. Take a bottle of water or milk if that will pacify your child. Or some biscuits or her favorite toy.

5. In Swiss, the doctor used to keep a ball of cotton and put a band aid over it after the shot to stop the bleeding. But here, the Dr just asks you to press the cotton tightly on her arm where the shot was given. Its really stupid as its impossible to hold the baby still. Either go with a band aid or ask the Dr beforehand for a plaster.

6. Usually there is a vaccination report card where all the details of the vaccines given for the child is noted down, in Swiss. No such thing here. But you might require it if you travel abroad. So you can ask the Dr to write the details in her prescription pad and sign it.

7. Some vaccines cost around Rs.2000 so go with enough cash.

Thats all I can think of. Life really revolves around the child for me, no?! :)

Movies and popcorn.

Watched 2 movies in the last 2 weeks on the big screen. That makes a grand total of five movies in one year. Not a bad record with a baby, I should add. The first four times, my mom baby sat Ashu while HD and I went for the movies while yesterday HD stayed home with Ashu while I went with my cousins and nieces. There were 6 of us and we had a blast. But the movie was a dud! (We knew that beforehand. Thats the reason HD decided to be all nice and stayed home!) My seven year old niece loved it though! Oops, I did nt mention the name of the movie, did I? It was Krrish! Ok, so have you stopped laughing now? Read on then! The first half was at least watchable but the second half was OH MY GOD horrible! My cousin and I were passing our own comments and were laughing so hard. That was the fun part. As if the movie was nt irritating enough, there were loads and loads of product placements too. It was nt like the occasional coke cans here and there but was 'on your face' and annoying. I could spot all these brands in absolutely unnecessary scenes:

Bournvita
Tide
Hero Honda
Boroplus
Vicks
Lays
Siarams
Samsung

The hilarious part is when grandma Rekha pours Tide detergent into a bucket standing in the middle of a beautiful living room. I mean, give me a break. And in the next scene, the Tide packet is sitting on the kitchen shelf next to the stainless steel tumblers! I would have appreciated a free sample, for Gods sake! Hrithik was good though. Poor thing has poured his soul for this dud. Priyanaka's make up was horrible in some scenes. I don't even know the first thing about professional make up and I could see what a blotchy make up it was! And she was Miss World? Hmm...!

Mission Impossible 3 was the other movie we watched. Loved it.

"I'd marry him!"

In the movie, two women who come to the engagement party of Tom Cruise and his fiancée (whoever she is, I don't care!) say that to each other after talking to Tom for a few minutes! I agree! :-D *drools*

ps.
Why do parents bring babies to the theater? The father was taking the screaming baby out of the hall 5 or 6 times. And the noise was horrible. I tightly shut my ears during all the song and action sequences. It was damn loud. Show some mercy to the babies people!

pps.
Try the Schezwan popcorn at the Innovative multiplex in Bangalore when you go next time. Very good. Made watching Krrish worthwhile! :)

If you know what I mean...

I really wish I were old. Whenever I do this uncool thing, I wish I were around 50 so that the thing I do is nt uncool. I mean is there any cool way to get the idli batter out of a grinder? (I mean the wet grinder here and not the mixer grinder!) How much ever you try, you have to use your hands ultimately to take the batter out and then scrape your hand in the storage vessel. Yucks! And I still waste a good amount of the maavu (batter) stuck in the grinder. How my mom wipes the grinder clean is beyond me. Anyway, I worked like a dog today around the house. I wish I cleaned the house everyday. But unfortunately no such determination or OCD. I always postpone housework until some guests arrive. It happens that this weekend we are having visitors and I ended up doing everything in one day. Clean the shelves, cup boards, make Idli maavu(thats how the uncool thing happened!), arrange the closets, clean TV, computer,.. All while dragging Ashu as she had tightly hugged my legs! Poor thing, never saw her mom so worked up before! The tough part was cleaning the fridge inside out as it has been ages since my fridge had some fresh air for more than 5 seconds!! (You must have got it by now who's coming if I am cleaning my fridge right? If not, ignorance is bliss!)

Usually I have loads of time to write but nothing comes to my mind. But sometimes it so happens that you will have loads of interesting stuff but no time or energy! So see you on the other side of a pretty long weekend! ;)

Girl next door.

Theres a big apartment complex near my apartment. They have a play area for children with swings, slides, see-saws, etc... and in the evenings I stand on my balcony with Ashu and show her what a play area looks like! (We occasionally go to parks when it does nt rain but shes still too small for everything and there are no baby swings anywhere! This info so that no one sues me for being a bad mom!) Anyway, every evening I see a young girl of about 6 or 7 years old. She looks like a servant maid. She comes with a 2 year old girl and baby-sits her. Even though the child can swing on her own, the girl keeps her on her lap and swings. Until some mother comes with her child and asks her to move. Then she slides with the child on her lap. Then the see-saw. She puts the child in one end and she sits in the middle and rocks.
I don't want to know what she does in the day time.

'BOMB'AY.

Nothing shocks me anymore. And that is really worrying. All I can think is, what is this World coming to?
Let Peace prevail!

ps. And yes, Rajdeep Sardesai was absolutely insensitive. I just wanted to wipe the smirk off his face!