Author: Swati Sani

Allergies

My cough/throat/sneezes/breathlessness/restlessness are back with a vengeance. Thankfully Wheezing is a little less but constant coughing is irritating the throat making me cough more.

Called my homeopath and she says give rest to the throat but no such luck am loaded with all kinds of stuff that need my vocal cords to be used all the time. With vendors continuously coming in with updates etc, absent house staff and Aasim’s fourth assessment going on, I just cant keep quiet. And now since I am not speaking since about 30 mins, all this keeping quiet is getting me depressed.

Return of the asthmatic attack

Day before y’day I was speaking with my neighbour yogeshpatel about my rarely having problems sleeping at night, and that very night I could not take a wink after 0030 hrs thanks to the “Return of the Asthamatic Attack” after almost three years. I did not have my inhaler handy, and the homeopathy SOS did not work. It was perhaps the worst of my asthama attack, I was wheezing for almost 12 hours and just could not lie down.

Today seems much better, I still have cough, itchy nose and rhinitis, but all of it seems under control.

In another news, Aasim scored extremely well in his first ASSET exam He is over 90% in the subjects he took the tests in (English, Maths and Science) which is good, however he still needs to work a lot the silly mistakes he makes.

Aasim

On 8th Of February, 2007, Aasim gave an exam for his Karate Orange belt and passed it.

The very next day, on 9th February, he had to appear for an entrance test for class IV at “The Jain International School (TJIS) Nagpur, which he passed in flying colours scoring 85% in the written test. He even gave an impressive one to one interview to the School Principal who asked him questions like ”Tell me about yourself“ and ” what are the criterion’s on which you decide who is your friend“ The boy spoke of things we did not know he could understand, let alone make his judgments on them – one of the things he listed as an answer to the second question by the principal was -”personality“ and even went on to explain it. The interview was tough, but Aasim came out of it impressively resulting into his getting admission at TJIS, Nagpur.

On 10th February, he did his first Karate Camp -a three day camp at Fun and Food Village, about 30 kms from the city, A first overnight camp for Aasim and a tough camp for all karatekas -it was meant to teach the basic tenets of Karate, discipline and self control. The boy came back stronger but extremely tired and totally tanned (thanks to the water park where they enjoyed during their off time from training).

Life since then has been been back to normal, he keeps talking of things like ” I have my rights too“ but then those are perhaps his pre-teen harmones kicking in.

Chicken – swatistyle

I had no recipe today, so I made up this one, and it came out pretty ok and this is going to be our dinner tonight.

Chicken – 750gms
Cream – 150gms
Yogurt – 100 gms
Saffron – a little
Kewra essense – 1/4 tsp.
Ginger -Garlic paste
Garam masala
Whole Red chillies
Salt
Oil

Marinate chicken in yogurt, cream, gingergarlic paste, garammasala and saffron – keep it for 5 hours.

Heat oil, remove chicken pieces and fry them to seal the juices inside. Add chillies, add the rest of marinade and salt. Cook till tender

Switch off the gas, add kewra essence and a little cream as dressing.

Serve with hot phulkas.

Children and Saftey

Children being what they are, we cannot stop them from exploring, moving about and around because it is this exploration of surroundings that contributes to their learning and leading a successful adult life – we are all but animals in the jungle. However, what worries me no end as a parent are the wolves that are hounding our children and us – these are the predators from whom we have to save our children and make them survive.

The recent Nithari case is not that happens only once or for that matter happens only in some Delhi suburb, the abduction of Adobe CEO’s son, is not something that happens to “other people”. All of us, even in the smallest of towns, as parents and teachers, need to keep our eyes open, our ears within reach so that we can see and hear that cry of help from our children.

More and more children today are being looked after by hired help, thanks to our busy lifestyle, more often that not, we are just happy that we got a help and don’t bother to check the background of the help. It is not that every household help is to be looked with suspicion, but we have to learn to find the ones that lurk behind the mask of a “simple servant” –a maid, a boy help that comes to your house for household chores, a milk man, an autowallah – all these people spend some time with our children. Children get friendly with them and trust them because as parents, you have entrusted them with your children, This makes their task very easy if they want to take advantage of the situation and molest, abduct or even kill your child. There are enough people around us with twisted mentalities and sadly the number seems to be growing.

Nagpur has been a quiet city for a long time, it is now turning around with more malls, more companies and more people coming in the city for various purposes. It has ceased to be a city where everyone knew everyone else.

It will pay for us to be paranoid, to educate our children and teach them self defence methods, to teach them the difference between a good touch and a bad touch –and not just to young girls, but to young boys as well. To make them understand whom to trust and who not to trust, to make them aware and educate them that things can go wrong, tell them to keep in touch with the family for their own safety. Little tips that can save them from getting into danger and most of all trust them to trust you and tell you things that happen to them outside the secure boundaries of your home.

It is never to early to tell your child all this. Remember, if he is old enough to be left with an autowallah to go to school, he is old enough to be taught how to save himself. It pays to be paranoid, it pays to be safe.

— Swati Sani
24th January 2007

Zombie

Another head hangs lowly,
Child is slowly taken.
And the violence caused such silence,
Who are we mistaken?

But you see, it’s not me, it’s not my family.
In your head, in your head they are fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are crying…

In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, What’s in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, oh, dou, dou, dou, dou, dou…

Another mother’s breakin’,
Heart is taking over.
When the violence causes silence,
We must be mistaken.

It’s the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen.
In your head, in your head they’re still fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are dying…

In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What’s in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, oh, oh,
Oh, oh, oh, oh, hey, oh, ya, ya-a…

FOSS.IN -the epilogue

We returned from FOSS.IN/2006 yesterday night and the moment I alighted from the craft and switched on my cell phone, i got a call from the local newspaper, The Hitavada. They wanted to interview Tarique because they discovered him thanks to the IANS Feed from Fred Noronha. They covered it in today’s paper

The event itself was a huge success, interacting with friends always has an exhilarating affect on me – despite the extremely painful foot, I enjoyed to the hilt. The only regret is managing all the paper left me without attending a single talk – but then, I will be able to see the slides and hopefully the videos too. Photographs are scattered all over the net, one just has to search and so are reports in journals, blogs and press. The FOSS mugs were cool, Kalyan’s calenders (The official FOSS.IN Calender) got very good response and I am told people want more of them, I am happy.

And in another news – the X-ray report says my foot bone ain’t broken -so i should be up and kicking dancing in a couple of days time 🙂