Kavish and Nishesh: The Journey Home

A photo essay documenting the journey from the NICU to home for Kavish and Nishesh, our twin boys born Nov 7, 2008 at 28.5 weeks.

Set to the backdrop of one of Renu's favorite hindi songs from the movie "Jab We Met (When We Met)" titled "Tum Se Hi (Only With You)".

RIP: Dr. Suman Raje

Early the morning of Dec 26th, my Choti Buaji (my father's sister) passed away. Dr. Suman Raje was a doctorate in Hindi Literature, a professor, a poet, and the author of many books. But to her family she was a loving mom and wife, to my father and mother she was more than anything else a close friend, and to me she will always be the storyteller.

When I was a young boy we used to travel from Ahmedabad (where we lived) to Kanpur (where Buaji lived) every summer holidays. It was a 2 1/2 day train trip on the Sabarmati Express. I remember the train always arrived at Kanpur in the middle of the night - around 4am or so. Of all the fun things we would do during the summer holidays - my favorite memory was the night when we would go to sleep.

We used to sleep on the roof since these were the days of heat w/ no AC, just a cooler. But before the kids would go to sleep we all had to circle around Choti Buaji for the bedtime story. And every night w/o fail she would churn one up. She was never reading from a book. Every one of her stories came right out of her head. The most imaginative creative fantastical stories a 7 year old had ever heard. In Hindi - often using words I couldn't understand then (or now for that matter). But she managed to create very vivid, very real images in our young minds.

"Bahut saal pehle, ek Raaja tha ...."

Miss you, Buaji.

Day 20. Done.

We are expecting twins in early january. However 20 days ago, our dr put my wife on bedrest at the hospital. She's doing fine and so are the babies. But it seems we may be in the hospital now until the babies come.

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The above is an unfinished post I started to write on wednesday Oct 5th, 2008. Two days later; on Day 22 - at 6:24pm and 6:25pm our twin boys were born.

Since then I am desperately trying to find an hour or so to pull together a small little birth announcement package. But between the trips to the NICU and balancing work and home - it's been a little difficult. But I know I will get to it soon. When the time is right. Now, it's time to head back to the NICU.

evil laugh continues ...

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:)

now, smartass thoughts are only one click away from you. ha ha! ha!

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Testing post from google dashboard widget for the mac.

Finally framed some beautiful paintings

In 2005, on a family vacation to India, my wife and I bought 3 great paintings from Hauz Kauz Village in New Delhi. Can you believe that it is 3 years later, and we finally got them framed! And they look amazing. Check them out:

I bought these from the original artists in India - sadly though I lost the info on who they were. Gotta dig them up. They had some great stories ... and it's the stories that make the paintings. In any case, I am happy to have finally framed them and put them up in our house. They seem so much happier to be out of the boxes they have been hiding in for the last 3 years. Welcome!

My Favorite Movies of 2008 so Far ...

The Fall installment of oscar contenders is yet to come - most of them getting their North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this week; but I am in the mood to pull together a list of my favorite films of this year so far.

Here we go.

1) The Dark Knight

2) Tell No One

3) The Visitor

4) Iron Man

5) Wanted

6) Lust, Caution (maybe last year but I saw it this year)

On the Hindi/Indian side:

1) Jodhaa Akbar

2) Rock On

3) Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

4) Singh is Kinng (u better believe it!)

Yet to see: Mumbai Meri Jaan or Santosh Sivan's Tahaan both of which I am anxious to watch. I am sure I am missing a few movies but this is what was top of mind. If I missed something obvious I will come back and correct.

Have no fear. Go pick up any of these. And if you don't like them you can leave me a flaming comment! ;)

Joe Biden and his "Indian" comment

So by now most of you have probably heard and/or seen the following comment by Obama's VP candidate, Sen Biden:

In case you missed it his comment was the following:

"I've had a great relationship. In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."

My first reaction when I heard this was that he better hope the doctor in that ER (if he's ever there) is not an Indian! ;)

But apparently this one has a happier ending per this article from The Times of India:

Obama-Biden ticket has a "slight Indian accent".

Quoting from the Times of India article:

"I was making the point that up until now in my state, we've had a strong Indian community made up of leading scientists and researchers and engineers," Biden explained later. "We're having middle-class people move to Delaware, take over Dunkin' Donuts, take over businesses, just like other immigrant groups have, and I was saying that ... they're growing, it's moving."

"I could have said that 40 years ago about walking into a delicatessen and hearing an Italian accent in my state," he added.

Most Indian-Americans in Delaware, where indeed there has been a boom in small business growth by the community, did not take Biden's remark amiss. Many of them, expecially those involved in businesses related to motels, liquor stores, and gas stations, are Biden supporters and contributors who have held fund-raisers for him and reeled him into events like the local Navratri garba hosted by the Gujarati community.

"He's a great guy, very experienced. We love him," Pravin Patel, president of  the Delaware Asian-American Business Association, said on Saturday after news broke of Biden's selection.

Hmmmmm. So I think the following:

1) How come Senator George Allen who two years ago made the following "macaca" comment did not fare as well?

When he also had Indians rushing to his defense as the following quote shows from a Washington Post article:

Allen's defenders rushed to his side, saying the comments, though careless, do not reflect what is inside the senator's heart. Sudhakar Shenoy, an Indian business executive from Fairfax who has known Allen for years, said he "has been an incredible friend to Indians" and is not a racist. "I'd stake everything I have that George is not that kind of a guy," Shenoy said.

Could it be that he's a Republican and therefore we let some stereotypes, beliefs and such come into play and sway some of us into a certain direction?

2) Isn't it funny that in Sen Biden's explanation the same statement but w/ the "italian accent" would not have generated the same kind of "oh this is inappropriate" buzz? We assume that a comment made about Indians in that way is inappropriate but when made about Italians - it's ok. Does that mean that we are too sensitive as Indian-Americans or as the media? Or perhaps the Italians went through a similar experience 40 years ago ... I hypothesize the latter.

3) We all have internalized many-a-beliefs about all kinds of people, places, professions and so on - our brain does that to help us categorize and process information efficiently. In the new book Sway, the Brafman brothers write: "All of us have certain lenses, or constructs, that we use to sift through the endless flow of information we encounter. For example, when we meet new people we may judge them on whether they dress well or poorly, whether their shoes are polished or not, whether they seem to be liberal or conservative, whether they are religious or secular, hip or nerdy. These constructs are useful insofar as they help us to quickly assess a situation and form a temporary hypothesis about how to react. Forming initial opinions is one of the ways in which we try to make sense of the world given limited time or information. But we have to be careful not to rely too much on such pre-emptive judgments, as they can short-circuit a more nuanced evaluation. They can narrow our perceptions and make us more apt to get swayed by a hasty diagnosis."

Perhaps, neither Sen Biden nor Sen Allen meant anything bad. Perhaps they both displayed a hint of something they feel deep down inside. How we perceive what they said is really driven more by who you are, rather than who they are. Isn't that interesting?

4) To end on a lighter note, or not if you get offended, here's the Indian 7-11 guy from the Mind of Mencia :)

"Now, get the purk out of my blog!" ;)