Things you could try to overcome colic

Colic is a very common condition amongst babies, especially boys. According to some of the websites, 1 in 4 babies is colic. If you dread the onset of evening, because you are so sure your baby is going to start crying incessantly and unexplainably, then your baby is probably colic too. Being colic does not mean your baby is unhealthy. It just means its digestive system is growing and becoming strong and stronger. As a starting point, you can read about colic at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_colic and dispel any fears you have.

Firstly, you must understand that till date, nobody actually knows the cause of colic! No amount of research has been able to discover that conclusively... all that researchers have figured out is that colic is not at all an adverse health condition. It is not harmful. It is nothing to be afraid of. It's merely a part of the baby's growing adventures. Hence there is no actual "remedy" for colic. Just a few things that you can do to distract and soothe the baby when it cries...

a) Our baby's paediatrician prescribed a drops called "Colicaid" to improve digestion. It helped a bit.

b) But more than medicine, what you need is patience and love, to deal with and soothe a baby that cries in a high pitched tone, incessantly, without even opening its eyes to look at any toys you might show to distract it. Be calm and believe in the fact that this is a very temporary, passing phase.

c) Rest the baby on your shoulders and pat and stroke its back such that its stomach is pressed down.

d) Try rocking the baby in a cradle, or keep it in your lap and swing steadily in a swing.

e) Try taking your baby out to the balcony or verandah and let him watch the greenery and hear the birds chirp -- nothing helps more than this! If your baby is big enough, then take him out for a stroll in the pram.

If any other solution worked best for you, do let us all know.

Enjoy every trimester of your pregnancy

Your first trimester is probably one-fourth completed by the time you realise you are pregnant -- and that's a good thing, because the first trimester is probably the toughest, rich in morning sickness, acidity, psychological troubles (only in case you're worried about how life would change after you have a baby), and much more. But the moment you realise you are pregnant, I have a friendly prescription for you -- ENJOY as much as you can!

Some people would claim that life changes the minute you know you are pregnant and the stress and sacrifices begin right then, blah, blah... and it is definitely so for those with special medical conditions, but if yours is a normal pregnancy, then throw away such notions and enjoy yourself completely! That is the best way to spend those 8-9 months! And that is actually the right way to prepare yourself for the future too.

Life will undeniably change after you have a baby -- no movies for a while, a strict diet, irregular and sometimes no sleep, and so on. Some people think they need to prepare themselves for the post-natal situation by thinking (and moaning) about it right from the first trimester of the pregnacy. Others think they should be over-cautious while pregnant and miss so many things that after the delivery, they repent for having wasted those wonderful free days!

I feel you should let go and have a bash all through your pregnancy, so that once the kid is born you feel satisfied that you enjoyed the pre-natal days to the hilt and are then prepared for the little sacrifices -- which are after all temporary!

• Do not overwork. Reduce your workload and reserve lots of time for sleep and enjoyment!
• Go out as much as you can. Avoid travelling on rocky roads, keep away from two-wheelers and autos as much as you can, but travel safely wherever you want. Travel will be restricted a bit after the baby comes. My husband and I made so many trips to visit our parents, as well as explored so many new places in Bangalore. Similarly, I also went around a bit coming to Chennai for the delivery. Now, when I'm confined to home with the baby, I have lots of memories to recall and enjoy!
• Don't forget to watch all the movies you want to. You can't go to the theatre with an infant, and even at home you cannot dream of watching a full movie at one go, without any interruptions. Vikram and I watched at least one movie every week, mostly on DVDs.
• Eat everything you love -- this is the time to do so. Once the baby is born, you have to be on diet, to maintain your weight as well as to ensure that you do not eat anything that troubles the baby (gastric foods, etc) -- keep that in mind, and eat whatever you feel you will sorely miss after the delivery -- aloo bonda, masala paratha, kothu parotta, pitla, colocasia fry, whatever you love!
• You can also eat out occasionally, provided it's a safe place. There is nothing wrong with eating out in a good restro/bakery you frequent, but eating pani puri in the road corner is a no-no. Similarly, it's safe to eat cooked food. Avoid raw stuff even in good restaurants. So, stay safe but enjoy yourself.
• Write lotsa emails, make lots and lotsa phone calls... you might not have time even for that later. So, keep in touch with your friends and warn them that you might not be in touch for a few months later -- so that they don't think you have vanished into outer space.

Oh well, just do whatever you want to... don't keep brooding about not being able to do things after the baby comes... do it all earlier, so that you are prepared for the next phase of life, and all set to greet it with a bright smile and no repentance!

Disclaimer: If your doctor has adviced you not to do something, DON'T do it! Enjoy within the limits prescribed by your gynaec!

Note: The prescription also holds for men whose wives are expecting a baby.

Babies make you believe in God...

I have not blogged since the second trimester of my pregnancy... I was busy enjoying myself in other ways :-) But now, my baby boy, Tejas, has brought me back to my blog again. Watching him grow is unbelievably exciting! I have known writers feeling sorry for themselves after childbirth, saying they feel so dull doing the same nursing and cleaning routine over and over again, resulting in a mental block that prevents them from writing, etc... sorry, I don't feel sorry for them anymore... because so far my experience has been very different... it is so wonderful watching a baby grow, there are so many things to think and write about... the baby becomes the stimulus and the inspiration to write!

Anyway, coming to the subject of this post... I think watching a baby grow is enough to make even an atheist start believing in God, or at least the existence of some kind of superpower. I believe in God, and yet I feel excited and surprised at every development... I wonder: How does a child know to suckle from the minute it is born? Who teaches it to start looking around, to vigorously kick about, and to cry? Why do so many expressions -- from laughter to fear -- cross a baby's face when it is seemingly fast asleep? How does a baby suddenly learn to smile one fine morning? How does a baby entertain itself when nobody is around, and when it cannot read or even understand words? We sit and talk to a baby but it cannot understand us, yet it has the decency to smile and make us feel comfortable -- how does it know this courtesy, if I may call it that? How does a baby learn to swallow? How does it recognise its mother? How does it start acquainting itself with other people? How does it learn to move its limbs? Without words, without symbols, how is the baby able to make us understand if it is hungry, sleepy or unwell?

Well, the structure of a baby, its features, etc, may be programmed in us as genes, as we've learnt in our biology lessons? But when a baby does things exactly like its dad or mum or other close relatives, it still immerses you in immense joy, surprise, and inevitably the question arises -- how? How does a baby form habits so early -- my son for instance refuses to cover his legs when asleep -- he will kick away the blanket with an irritated look and then drift back to blissful sleep, he knows when it is time for his raisin juice and will not drink milk at that time, he knows what games each of the family members plays with him and reacts accordingly, and so many such habits... and he is just two months old!

My aunt was telling me about a recent research that proved that a baby can form habits as early as three days old -- they tied a toy pigeon to a hook above the baby; there was a string tied to the pigeon, the other end of which was tied to the baby's toe; whenever the baby moved it leg, the string was pulled and the pigeon made a sound. After three days, when the researcher brought the pigeon and tied it to the hook, the baby immediately started moving its legs up and down in the usual rhythm!

I keep questioning 'how', and despite being an 'educated woman' and despite reading so much literature on the subject in the Internet, etc, I am not convinced that it is just simple biology. I think there is a Power above all that. I like to believe in grandma's theory that God speaks to children and plays with them -- that's why they go into a trance quite often and laugh and play even when nobody is around. God teaches the baby the basic life lessons (and the complex lessons too, later in life!), He soothes it when it is scared, He helps the baby understand the emotions we show towards him - thereby forging the bond, He protects the baby from negative emotions and other scary things, in short, it is He who helps the baby to even start learning the things we teach him -- God stands as the first building block in the baby's life. I am thoroughly convinced. May He be with Tejas too!

Kadlekka Parishe

Last weekend we attended a strange festival at the Basavangudi Temple (Bull Temple) in Bangalore. It was so interesting that it has brought me back to my blog!

"Kadlekka Parishe" or Peanut Festival is celebrated on the last Monday of the Karthigai month (this year, the last Monday of the Kannadiga's Karthigai month was 24th November) at the Basavangudi temple. It order to draw the crowds, the jatra started on Saturday itself (although the rain did play spoilsport, on both Saturday and Sunday evenings).

Well, the highlight of this festival is the sale of peanuts! Farmers from all around Karnataka and even areas of Tamilnadu (like Dharmapuri) come to sell their first harvest of peanuts. As a result, you can see peanuts in every direction you look around the Basavangudi temple -- right from BMS College right upto the Ramakrishna Ashrama. The temple is crowded with a truly assorted array of visitors -- right from the villagers to the ITzens of Bangalore to foreign nationals! Naturally, there are other festive activities too, to entertain the crowd to the fullest -- this ranges from special pujas at the temple and music/dance concerts to stalls featuring bulls, sale of a wide range of goods, especially handicrafts, and amusement rides. But the overwhelming aspect of the whole festival is obviously the heaps of peanuts covering both sides of the road!

There is an interesting story behind this -- my neighbour tells me. Many years ago, Basavangudi was full of peanut plantations. However, strangely the villagers found that somebody was stealing their peanuts every night! Suspecting this to be either a thief or a herd of cows, the villagers stood guard one night, and one of them found a lone bull feasting on the crop! Mistaking this to be a thief, he threw his spear in the direction and on finding no further movement from the person/animal, he went back to resume his night's sleep. When the villagers came to the field next morning to review the night's adventure, they realised that the farmer had actually struck down none other than the Bull God (Nandi or Basava, the mount of Lord Shiva) himself, and in place of the bull, they found a stone statue. They also realised that in the guise of a bull feasting on the peanuts, the Bull God was actually guarding the peanut crops from thieves!

Worried that they had committed a sin, the villagers pondered over what to do, and built a temple to house the statue. However, to their surprise and shock, the bull kept outgrowing the temple! That was when Lord Shiva appeared in a troubled villager's dream and instructed that they should dig in front of the bull statue -- they will find a trishul (the three-pronged weapon of gods and goddesses), which they should affix on the bull's forehead to stop it from growing, and they should also worship the bull regularly and offer the first harvest of peanuts to the temple every year. This custom is continued till date.

This explains both the mammoth size of the bull as well as the strange custom.

In all, a wonderfully interesting experience -- which makes you forget that you are in the fast-paced and cosmopolitan Bangalore. Vikram and I felt like we were in Thanjavur or Mylapore, raging with festivities, old-world style!

Updates!!

When it rains, it pours -- good luck or bad! This time, fortunately, it turned out to be good luck.

a) The rains came, and the power shedding frequency has gone down amazingly. Just 1/2 an hour a day. Thank God.

b) After I sent the link to my blogpost on Sify (A long cable cut short) to a senior executive at the company, suddenly today evening two visitors knocked at my door - Sify's Area Manager and the local agent! They renewed my a/c for the pending two months, and assured me good service now and later. They did not refute any of the problems I faced but told me that this problem occured only in two areas of Bangalore and nowhere else. They also promised to rectify the problem in my neighbourhood. It'll take me a while to trust that this will happen, but I was definitely happy about the assurance and hope it turns out true. I know this isn't really citizen journalism -- it happened because I mailed the link to the top management, but I'm happy that they at least acted on this. If my neighbour gets the same service, it is citizen journalism!

c) The good tide continues -- BSNL has also fixed the massive exchange problem in our area, and I've had uninterrupted connectivity for the past two days. I almost fainted with joy when I got a call from BSNL asking if the problem has been solved. What service! Of course, this was definitely not because of any blogpost, but nonetheless, I'm glad it happened :-)

Touch wood! Hope God doesn't end with a, "Touche!" and stop the rains ;-)

AGAIN!!

Can you believe it... my BSNL connection is down AGAIN!!! I called the customer support only to be told that it's a problem at the local exchange. So, the walks to the telephone exchange begin again. I know BSNL service is not going to improve any time soon, but in the bargain I hope I at least lose a few kilos... worrying about the connection and walking to the exchange!

Do I have a broadband connection?

I think I do :-) But I am not sure BSNL thinks so. Here is what happened...

In May, I applied for a broadband connection from BSNL. In June, I got it. I went to their office every week, diligently, and one day they said – Ma’am, you’ve been blessed with a broadband connection by the almighty BSNL. Here is your username and password J I was elated. My husband and I had had such a terrible time with Sify that we were yearning for the BSNL connection, despite the horror stories we had heard about their customer service.

On June 7th 2008, the residents of Padmanabhanagar would have seen me walking back home from the BSNL office with a big smile on my face and a small chit of paper in my hand – that tiny scrap of paper with the username and password scribbled on it by the supervisor at the desk was the only proof that I had a broadband connection! I asked for more details... the IP address perhaps, but they refused to help me in any other way, since I used a ‘private modem’ (it was a standard model, but I was using my own modem and not the one supplied by them). So, after a bit of a struggle and some calls to the BSNL call centre, I got the broadband running on my computer (for those of you who don’t know, they have a call centre for broadband queries – 1800 424 1600).

However, right from the start it so happened that my connection would get cut every time we got an incoming call! So, I called the customer care again, and they confirmed that it was not a problem with my modem’s settings but with the line, so they would lodge a complaint.

A month went by, nothing happened. I would just get calls once in a while asking if my telephone worked. Every time, I would say, yes it did, and explain the disconnection problem I faced. Still the problem persisted.

And then one day, the connection went on the blink – totally! Two lights went down on the modem! So, I called customer care again, and they said the problem was again with the line, but they could not register a complaint because the previous one (lodged more than a month ago) was still pending!

So, off I went to the exchange again, but even before I could explain what the problem was, the supervisor there shut me up saying 500 lines were down and would be repaired. I went to the office every day, for a week, only to get the same reply. Till one day, I managed to barge past the supervisor and tell the lady at the computer that my telephone line WAS working but my broadband connection wasn’t. She pulled up some records, and very nicely told me, “Madam, you do not have a broadband connection. Your application is still pending!” What?! I had been using the broadband connection for over a month, and even paid for it. So, how come I don’t have a connection?

I was confused and tried to explain the problem to her. After thinking for a while, she asked me... if it is true that you do have a connection, tell me your username and password. For some reason, she insisted on knowing the password to ascertain if my claim was true or not. Unable and unwilling to argue with her, I gave her the details. She believed me. She pulled up the records, changed the status to “repeat complaint” and promised to get it fixed asap. And it was. The next day, I got a call from the engineer in the morning, asking what the problem was, and he fixed it immediately. If only they had heard me out, perhaps the problem would have been sorted out even earlier.

Well, that is not the end of the story. The ADSL link was up, but for some reason the PPPOE connection never went through. The connection status remained, “Cannot reach PPP server.” Customer care again! However, the moment the customer support guys asked me for the modem model number and I answered, they would reply saying, “Sorry madam, we do not support private modems.” Oh my God, most modems have the same settings, and D-Link was such a standard model, couldn’t they at least try and see what the problem is?

After repeated calls, I at last reached a guy who seemed to be awake and prepared to try fixing the problem... after 45 minutes on the call, he realised that the problem was at the server-end and fixed it! On July 22nd 2008, I got connected to the Internet, at last.

Having gone online after a long time, I pinged my brother on GTalk, and said, “Hey, my Internet is back!” Lo and behold, the lights went off! Therein begins another story – the saga of power cuts in Bangalore :-)

PS1: I learnt quite a few lessons through this experience. Firstly, never argue with a Government employee. Be polite, almost subservient. They need to ‘bless’ you with service. Please, good morning, thank you, sir and madam are good words to use – and they do have a good influence on the Government staff, and achieve the desired results. I do not blame them – they probably have enough people screaming at them, so politeness is a welcome respite even for them!

PS2: When you call customer support, remember that you are reaching a call centre. So, every time you call, a different person will pick up the phone. So, if one of the professionals you reach seems clueless or unhelpful, don’t waste your time. Cut and call again. Chances are that if you call six times, you will reach one person who doesn’t belong in front of that dumb terminal and overused headset! He or she will hear, think, and sort out your problem.

PS3: Six months in the Silicon Valley of India, without a stable Internet connection, working from home! How did I manage? My husband and dad who were confident that we could (at any expense) find a way out to let me work uninterrupted, egging me on to patiently overcome poor customer service and somehow get the connection – even when I lost my cool. Not to forget my work associates who never complained about my short and sometimes slightly delayed responses! Best of all... a Reliance Netconnect data card that continued to work even after our card had been rendered invalid due to a wrong recharge done at the local Reliance World store!

PS4: I hope this connection continues to work!