Friday, May 30, 2008

Eye Eye Yo

Researchers have found a major cause of infant restlessness. After major studies lasting over 4 years and across 18 countries, the team of 50 pediatric researchers has come up with some startling results. The main cause of why infants tend to be restless has nothing to do with their inability to speak about their irritation and illnesses. Turns out, this restlessness is caused by a condition known as the “Evil Eye Syndrome”.

While there is no known source of the said evil eye, it is found that it can happen any time and anywhere. It is suspected that the prime cause of the evil eye is unwanted visitors, but there have also been cases of an evil eye “casting” by viewing pictures of the infant, whether online, or in hard copy photographs. When left untreated, the evil eye syndrome can cause major health problems in the infant, even leading to hospitalization. While there is no certified treatment as yet, the most effective medication for the EES, is the simple warding off of the evil eye, by making two clockwise rounds and two counter-clockwise rounds of a blob of pure iodized salt around the infant’s face.

There is however good news on this front. The researchers have also developed a vaccine for the EES, which can be found at your local beauty store. The vaccine involves applying any black colored mark anywhere on the infant’s body in clear sight of any possible evil eye. The effect of the color black on the evil eye is considered comparable to that of Kryptonite on Superman. The fact that sub-Saharan Africa has the most number of infants with health problems, in spite of being demographically completely black and potentially having no effect of the evil eye was however considered a minor outlier in the said study, considering that success rate in India and China, was huge.

So there we have it. Evil, like beauty, lies in the eyes of the beholder

Sunday, May 25, 2008

How Annika came to be Annika..

Honestly, I don't think we can confidently say we came up a brainwave.. I always knew about Annika Sorenstam, the golfer, and not once did I say that "That is the name of my daughter.. " or something like that.. There were a couple of other names which we had in mind way before we got pregnant, - D wanted Khyati, while I always thought Sabah was a good name.. But there never was anything fixed.. For some reason we always thought that we would have a boy, primarily because we (or rather, I) wanted a girl so bad that I didn't want to get disappointed at it being a boy...
 
Anyway, I digress..
 
Like most prospective parents these days, we started our search with the internet.. To cut a long story short, we found a whole bunch of names on some sites, the best of which this one - http://www.all-babynames.com/.. We found Annika there, and liked it.. but it said that was " a pet form for Anna".. That's where Annika Sorenstam came in.. We googled it for a swedish connection, and found that it meant Grace in the Nordic names.. So that was it.. What remained was finding an Indian meaning.. That's where the magic of Google came in again, and told us that it was also a variant of Goddess Durga, who mythologically, is anything but graceful, when angry, so it fit in, since my late grandma was born with the name Durga, (and since both us parents have a temper matching Durga).. So if it was a girl, it HAD to be Annika.. We had finalised 3 names for boys, which we said we would choose from, but the name had to go with the face, so we were waiting.. However that never came about, so I am not telling you what names those were...
 
That was it.. Simple..
 
--- Papa

What're the odds???

Some events are worth cherishing. Clicking photographs and cutting
newspaper clippings really don't do justice to the essence of the
event. Events which remain etched in your memory, because you are
going through an experience which you have always thought was
impossible. All your life you go about your business not even
considering that something like this could happen to you, because such
things happen only to rich and powerful and very very lucky people.

Some of the events in my life have been
• Attending a U2 concert
• Watching a live US Open tennis match on Arthur Ashe Court
• Autograph of Barry Richards
• Seeing Hugh Hefner in person (but that was a late realization!!)
• Sitting through a class conducted by a US Defense Secretary. –
William Perry, (Clinton's defense secretary)

Now there's one more on that list.

Most people do not read novels loudly. Neither do I. But I do read
novels, and when I read them in my mind, a voice reads them out to me.
I'd like to say it's all my voice, but a better way to put it would be
to say that my voice reads to me using different voice tones and
moods. Something like what my grandma and mother used to when they
would read stories to me as a kid. The main reason it was my own voice
was that I have always had to make do with imagining what the author's
voice would be. Not any more.

At least not with Lord Jeffrey Archer's books!!!

Presenting............

Raising Annika