Goa Vacation!

We are off to Goa today for a much needed vacation. The kids are very very excited and so are we!

Rakhi 2007

Rakhi this year fell on August 28. This was Mamli & Bablu's 3rd Rakhi. Rohan Padhi (Gulu), my brother-in-law, visited us for Rakhi. Gayatri, my sister, had sent Rakhis for me and for Bablu (from her two daughters, Meghu & Chikoo).

We celebrated Rakhi in the morning.

Gulu had brought his camcorder and shot a movie of the proceedings.

 

Video Album 2 - Rakhi 2007

(Click image above to see the video on Picasa Web Albums)

Here is the embedded video.

Durgesh Nandini's New Web Site - Powered By Google Apps!

Earlier this year I had registered DurgeshNandini.name on Net4Domains.com. I had not hosted anything on the domain and simply set URL forwarding to my web site, Satpathy.in.

I read about Google Apps a few weeks ago and decided to use the DurgeshNandini.name domain to set up a site using Google Apps. The sign up was straight forward. However Net4Domains does not have tools online to make all the required changes like CNAME changes etc. Some of the changes I could make on the Net4Domains dashboard but for the others I had to raise support tickets. They responded fairly fast, typically within 24 hrs.

I now have personalized email, Docs & Spread Sheets, Calendar etc along with web pages on the new web site. Do check it out.

Mamli & Bablu On Independence Day (August 15, 2007)

This year both Mamli & Bablu participated in the Independence Day celebrations in our complex (Steel & Mines, Srinagar Colony, Hyderabad). They had practiced a song each and sang them after the flag hoisting. Watch the videos below.

Mamli's Song

Bablu's Song

Picasa Web Album Slide Show

A slide show of our trip to Srisailam in early June 2007.

 

 

Create you own Picasa Album Slide Shows here.

Flickr Slide Show On Blogger!

I saw this neat Flickr Slide Show app on Blogger Templates, a great place to find Blogger related information, tips & tricks etc.

This post is a test to see how things work. I will post instructions on the usage in a subsequent post.

 

Mamli's Star - Class 3D, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Public School, Jubilee Hills

Mamli is now in class 4. Last year she did rather well. She won a number of prizes and managed to beat the the person she was most afraid would do better than her!

I took these photos with my mobile phone and have been meaning to post them here for some time now. Well here goes...

Well done Mamli. No pressure but we do hope to see the same again this year!

 

Bablu's Experiments With MS Paintbrush

Bablu loves to play with the computer. When he is not playing games, he is drawing pictures with MS Paintbrush. I showed him how to save his paintings and he hasn't looked back since then. These are a few samples of his work

Madhumita Satpathy's Marriage

Madhumita is my cousin and the youngest daughter in the Satpathy family (my generation). She married Sidharth Hotha on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at Rourkela, Orissa.

I attended her wedding along with my parents, grand parents and a host of other family members. This trip to Rourkela was rather arduous. I left Hyderabad on Tuesday afternoon by Faluknama Express and arrived at Bhubaneswar on Wednesday morning at about 11.20 am. Took the late night bus to Rourkela the same day. Attended the marriage and then caught the train back to Bhubaneswar the same night. Finally took Konark Express back to Hyderabad on Friday afternoon, arriving at 11.30 am on Saturday morning. Phew!

This marriage was overshadowed by the death of my youngest uncle (father's youngest brother). As a result none of the Satpathy family (of the same Gotra) could participate in the marriage itself. The bride was given away by her maternal uncle, Dr. Bharatendu Swain (Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad). My aunt (father's sister) did most of the work.

Anyway, I am back in Hyderabad now. Catching up on emails and have the boss breathing down my back...

Resurrection! The Home PC Is Alive Again :-)

Raghu (RR Peripherals) came over this morning to change the motherboard. It took about 30 mins for the entire process. I realized that I need a new SMPS. My current one is 300 Watts and the new motherboard needs 400 Watts. Anyway, it works for the time being and should be able to take the current load but I will change it as soon as I return from Rourkela (Munu's marriage) next weekend.

I had to spend another hour reinstalling all the key drivers (network, audio, video etc). Otherwise everything works like a charm. And the new 1Gb RAM makes it feel smoother than before (I had 512 Mb then).

Bablu came running to me half an hour ago asking if the "Computer Is Okay Now?". I grinned at him and said Yes. At this he ran back into their bedroom and triumphantly informed his elder sister - "I Told You So!". It seems he recognized the startup sounds that the PC makes on starting (Windows XP Pro) but could not convince his sis.

The Staircase And Bablu

Bablu, my 3 year old son, had a bad fall yesterday evening. He was riding his bicycle and lost control near the staircase. Fell down a flight of steps and banged his head rather bad. Luckily Padmaja had just arrived and was riding up in the lift. I was on my way home and about 3 mins away. He is fine now but gave us a bad fright last night.

My greatest fear is that if the kids have an accident at home while we are work, it will take us a minimum of 30 minutes to get home (Saifabad to Srinagar Colony for Padmaja & from Madhapur for I). Both our offices are about 8 kms from home but traffic is so bad that it will take at least half an hour to get home. During peak hours it can take as much as 45 minutes!

I am frightened of even thinking about what can happen in that 30 mins.

Help! I Just Received A Message From My Wife

I think my wife is trying to tell me something but I just can't figure out what! She sent me the text below in an email. Can anybody decipher the stuff and send me the message hidden in there?

Looks like plain old English to me. Every third letter perhaps? Or first letter of each word?

Grrr... Why can't women just tell you what is on their mind?

Anyway, do give it a try. if you decipher it I will be glad to hear from you!

Why Women R so Special...............

Mum and Dad were watching TV when Mum said, "I'm tired, and it's getting late. I think I'll go to bed."

She went to the kitchen to make sandwiches for the next day's lunches. Rinsed out the popcorn bowls, took meat out of the freezer for supper the following evening, checked the cereal box levels, filled the sugar container, put spoons and bowls on the table and started the coffee pot for rewing the next morning. She then put some wet clothes in the dryer, put a load of clothes into the washer, ironed a shirt and secured a loose button. She picked up the game pieces left on the table, put the phone back on the charger and put the telephone book into the drawer. She watered the plants, emptied a wastebasket and hung up a towel to dry. She yawned and stretched and headed for the bedroom. She stopped by the desk and wrote a note to the teacher, counted out some cash for the excursion and pulled a text book out from hiding under the chair.

She signed a birthday card for a friend, addressed and stamped he envelope and wrote a quick note for the grocery store. She put both near her bag Mum then washed her face with 3 in 1 cleanser, put on her Night Solution & age fighting moisturizer, brushed and flossed her teeth and filed her nails.

Dad called out, "I thought you were going to bed."

"I'm on my way," she said. She put some water into the dog's dish and put the cat outside, then made sure the doors were locked and the patio light was on. She looked in on each of the kids and turned out their bedside lamps and radios, hung up a shirt, threw some dirty socks into the hamper, and had a brief conversation with the one up still doing homework. In her own room, she set the alarm; laid out clothing for the next day, straightened up the shoe rack. She added three things to her 6 most important things to do list. She said her prayers, and visualized the accomplishment of her goals.

About that time, Dad turned off the TV and announced to no one in particular. "I'm going to bed."

And he did...without another thought.

Online Payment of BSNL Bills - My latest Mess Up

Last month I did something really stupid. I messed up the bill payments. I paid the BSNL (landline phone) bill twice and didn't pay the electricity bill!

Opps! The wife is mad. She will be madder if she knows the whole story. She thinks I am losing it slowly. If she gets the whole story she might pack me off to an old age home at the ripe old age of 35.

It went like this; I pay the electricity bills on ESeva. Their web site sucks but it gets the work done. Earlier I used to pay the BSNL bills on ESeva too but for the last six odd months I am using BSNL's web site. Much nicer web site and I get the job done much faster. Well last month I logged into the ESeva site late at night and clicked my way through the screens. The amounts were similar and I paid BSNL's bill by mistake, thinking that I am paying the electricity chappies. Then I happily logged into BSNL's web site and paid the bill again! The next day I synchronized my bank statement with my off-line records and marked the payments as Elect Bill & Phone Bill. I remember being a little puzzled that the amounts were the same but I let it go.

Well to cut a long story short, I got a shock when Padmaja received this month's Electricity bill and it was twice the usual amount. She waved it under my nose and I stared at it for a few minutes with my mouth open. I still didn't get it at that time. I quietly pocketed the bill and told Padmaja I would deal with it.

It was much later when I pulled out the old bills to cross verify and figure out whether I had goofed up big time or somebody else had. Unfortunately I am the guilty party.

Called up BSNL and the lady in the customer service department (not call center) told me that they could fix it if I wrote to them explaining all the details.

Now I have to sneak out of the house on Saturday and go visit the Ameerpet BSNL office.

Psst. Please please please don't tell Padmaja.

A Sock With A View

These photos were taken in Nov 2005. Bablu was wearing a sock with a rather big hole because all his other socks were in the washer. He was very thrilled about the fact that his little toe was peeping out :-)

Kinder Garten Photo!

This picture was taken during the annual day celebration of Indo German Kinder Garten, Rourkela, Orissa, in the year 1976. I was in KG 1 then and my sister was in Nursery (she is in the middle). I don't remember the boy on the left. I think he was in my class but I don't remember his name.

Home PC Clean Up Completed

I finally have everything chugging along as before. The Home Security system is up, the web server, FTP server and video streaming server are all up. Took me a couple of days but it is worth it. I now have more space, and the PC is chugging along nicely thanks to a brand new OS install.

The funny thing is that I forgot to install the audio drivers. My son likes to watch Tom & Jerry from his collection of CDs during his post dinner glass of milk. We were still watching Lagge Raho Munna Bhai on the TV and Bablu was shunted to the PC. I got a rude shock when I realized that the audio drivers were missing. Bablu was not happy with the situation to say the least. I tried to install the drivers etc but quickly realized that it would take too long (time from a small child's perspective is not the same as an adult's). I pulled out the laptop and put his CD in that. Problem solved.

By the way, we loved Lagge Raho Munna Bhai. :-)

Long Weekend Coming Up

Jan 26 is Republic Day and a national holiday. All of us are looking forward to the long weekend. Bablu has been chanting the "3 days holidays!" mantra for the last few days. Mamli has an exam on Sunday and will have to work through the next couple of days. We will most probably take in a movie on Sunday evening after her exam is over.

Best of luck Mamli.

Bablu's Adminssion to LKG in Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Jubilee Hills

Padmaja & I were not sure if we wanted to send Bablu to regular school this academic year. He is attending play school at EuroKids, Ameerpet. Anyway, I picked up the admission form for Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Public Scool in Jubilee Hills in late Nov. Dropped off the completed form on the last day and then we all relaxed. Didn't bother to do the same for other schools. During Mamli's time we had rushed around filling up forms for a number of schools including BVBPS.

BVBPSJH conducts a lottery for Sibling applicants (20 seats) and general (20 seats) on Dec 31. We completely forgot about the lottery till a colleague of Padmaja asked about Bablu's admission on Jan 2nd. At first Padmaja thought the chap was asking about Bablu's health and only latter realized that he was asking about the admission! Anyway I was sent off to the school to inquire. I dutifully trotted off, met the principal, Mrs. Rama Devi, and then checked the lottery results. Bablu's name was there! Misspelled as G Jyotiraditya instead of Jyotiraditya Satpathy. I really hate it when people misspell names!

Anyway, Padmaja, Mamli, Bablu & I went to pay the admission fees last Saturday. Mamli was to get her report card too. She has slipped a bit. A C & a B this time instead of all A+s. Sigh. Too many comics :-)

Bablu will start LKG on June 13, 2007. He is all excited about going to "Big School" as he calls it. The day after the admission he refused to go to EuroKids and insisted that he be sent to the Big School. Padmaja told him that his uniform is not ready and he will go to Big School only after the uniform has been purchased. That satisfied him and he went off to EuroKids as usual. I have always wondered how my dear wife manages to think up these things on the fly. The uniform thingy is excellent. You see the shops won't have the uniform, and then we have to find time to go buy it etc etc. Really neat! It is good for the next few months at the very least!

The Samaj Printed Our Photo Of Prathamastami Pooja - Cont.

This is the photo that appeared in the Sunday, Nov 12, 2006 edition of The Samaj.

The Samaj Printed Our Photo Of Prathamastami Pooja

The Samaj is the leading Oriya daily newspaper. I remember my mother reading the Samaj when I was a child. She used to pick words from the paper for dictation tests. I was horrible at spelling, much to her despair.

Anyway, my parents called today to tell us that a photo of me blessing Mamli & Bablu (the photo titled Prathamastami Pooja on my family web page) has appeared in the Nov 12, 2006 edition of Samaj. Under an editorial about Prathamastami Pooja.

I immediately Googled for "Prathamastami" and got this results page. My photo is the first result. It seems to me that somebody at the Samaj editorial offices used the same search, liked the photo on my web site and decided to use it. Definitely a copyright violation but I don't think I will take it up with the newspaper.

By now all my relatives have seen the paper. Everybody but us here at Hyderabad. We don't get the paper here. Have asked Baba (my father) to save a copy and send me a scan of the relevant article. Will post it here when I get it.