One of the childhood fringe benefits that one loses growing up is the excitement revolving around summer vacation, fondly known in our household as the days of being AVK. To the uninitiated, AVK stands for Avuthu Vitta Kazhidhai, roughly translated this means a donkey that has been set free.

Yes, summer vacation meant we were set free from a lot of things - the robotic 9:00 A.M.-4:00 P.M. school schedule, whining over loads and loads of never ending homework and assignments, the marathon chatting sessions, a.k.a. combine study sessions, the need to fake health setbacks to avoid sitting for an exam, and the pressure of having to show some progress in progress reports.

Summer vacation also meant indulgences – the sweetest of bagnapalli mangoes, hanging out with friends at whim and fancy, visiting cousins and being visited by cousins, and unlimited T.V. Time.

Summer vacation also meant looking forward to new beginnings – new teachers, new classmates, new text books, new uniforms, and new curriculum.

And then my friends, as they say, life happened and with that came the realization that summer is only a season, and a change in full form for AVK - Avuka Muduyatha Kazhidai – a donkey that cannot be set free. Sigh!

I remember this saying written in bold words on a black board in one of our Hindi classrooms as a "Thought for the Day". Years later, I am beginning to feel that this was coined with folks like me in mind. You know you are impatient when:

- You place your food in the microwave and set it for 2 mints looking forward to a warm lunch, but simply cannot let it run it's course if you are not multitasking.

- You are making adai/uttappam and you are tempted to turn it the other side even before it's done in order to be done with it.

- It's a green signal and the car in front of you is waiting to take a left turn. How you wish you had left seconds earlier to give you an edge over that vehicle that seems to be taking its sweet time to move on.

- You repeatedly hit the refresh button on your browser hoping that it would load the crawling web page faster.

- You plant the fenugreek seeds today and keep staring at the pot every two to three hours hoping that the mere act would hasten the germination.

- You want to chew your candy, even the hard one, instead of experiencing the pleasure of it melting in your mouth.

- You conveniently conclude that ending a list with a round number is all in the mind.

On that note, enjoy rest of the weekend and have a good week ahead.

Parenting often makes you think about the oddest things in life. Of late, I have been fascinated by how the different parts of the human body can handle varying degrees of temperature. When I offer something piping hot to Atul, I like to feed him the first few bites with my hand because I know if my hand can handle the temperature, the tongue, which is more heat tolerant than the hand, can handle it too. The opposite is true for hair wash. If the water is not hot enough for the body, it is good enough for the head. At night, I make it compulsory for Atul to wear his socks because if his feet, which retains the heat in the body, is protected, he should be fine even if the blankie fails to keep him cosy. The one thing that is still a mystery though is how to protect the sensitive nose that  sometimes acts like an immature sibling who turns green with envy when attention is lavished on the brother or sister. As I lay down fully bundled up with a pair of socks, a sweater and two comforters on me, content that nothing can come between me and my sleep, my nose makes it presence felt by getting a tad chillier. A battle pursues between my nose and my comforter for the next few minutes and before I know it, I slip into glorious sleep; only to wake up in the middle of the night when my body declares loud and clear that in my enthusiasm to stay snug, perhaps I went a little too far. Apologetically, I toss out my sweater and socks, before I slip into dreamland again.

We are planning to buy a home. They say that the housing market has softened and there is supply glut in the market. We are beginning to realize that finding that dream home is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
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The weather has been really chilly these past few weeks.  Yet, the lack of snow makes this a weird winter for New England. I am mentally ready for spring :-)
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- Overcoming your weaknesses and proving to yourself that you are capable of living life according to your own expectations is one of life's sweetest pleasures.
- Making small changes, one at a time, on a regular basis, is the key to seeing big changes over a period of time.
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How many of you think that Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus?

Low: My car's remote wouldn't work this morning. The reason being, the headlights were on for the entire weekend causing the car battery to die down. I felt like knocking my head against the wall for committing the same mistake twice (I had posted about a similiar incident few months back). I should learn to learn from my mistakes.

High: I went beyond my comfort zone. I am so accustomed to driving Toyota Echo that I never bothered to test drive Arvind's Subaru ever since we bought it. Today, I was left with no choice but to take his car to drop Atu off at day care and proceed to work. Consequently, driving someone else's car is not a big deal anymore :)

Side story: Knowing that I am an aggressive driver, Arvind advised, "This is a bigger car than echo. Be careful about your right turns. The brake handles differently and I wouldn't speed on the highway". I felt like a teenager who has just gotten her license.

I read the print edition of Wall Street Journal soon after I woke up. Hip, hip, hurray!

What a silly thing to post? believe me, spending an hour and half reading a newspaper is a luxury that I can hardly indulge in these days.

Boston is picturesque in Fall with leaves turning to very pretty shades of green, yellow, orange and pink. The highway that I take is so scenic that it makes me want to be slowed down by traffic. And yesterday, it was the pinnacle of aha! moment... fog covered fall foliage, like the ones we see in calendars... it was picture perfect!

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I had an interesting small talk with a passer by. I was holding the door open for her while she was walking slowly and thoughtfully.

She: Oh sorry for making u hold that door for long. I was in my own world... it's nice and safe out there! (that is her world)
Me: *Smile*

Both of us are walking out of the door

She: It's a beautiful day
Me: Yeah, makes me feel happy and positive
She: How nice would it be if it was like this forever... no snow, no freezing temperature, no cold, no fever.... (thinks for a couple of seconds)... well, no such luck! have a good nite.
Me: Good nite.

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Arvind is crazy about remote controlled cars and he is planning on getting Atul hooked up to it so that it will give him a valid excuse for buying more cars. With this end in mind, he started playing with the car in front of Atu. The little one looks at the car move and then sees his dad using the remote. He kinda figured out that it is the remote that is controlling the car... I thought it was pretty sohpisticated observation for a 10 month old.

It's a bad idea to keep ur routine dependent on ur commute. I am not sure which is worse... taking backroads and getting stopped at every single red light and railway crossing or taking the highway and face a crawling traffic.

It is so annoying when you are trying to be as productive as you can be during working hours so that you can wrap up dot 4:30 P.M. only to be delayed by crawling traffic, road construction and the guy in front of you who is driving below speed limit just because he is yapping away to glory on his cell. I save seconds but lose hours.