Hola muchachos!
I have officially learnt (scratch that- taught myself) how to upload videos/pictures from my phone onto my laptop, so rejoooice! I am quite the foolish one when it comes to technology, and I’m not just saying that to sound like ‘that girl’. I have learnt quite a bit of late however and will be happy to help you refragment your hard drive (thanks Ashie!). HAH.
It was the kick-off for yet another religious festival (lasts 10 days), called Ganesh Chaturti so I was in Bombay with the fam at my Grammy‘s home. The last time I was in the country for the festival was when I was a wee little one, aged 11 (same height though) and sooo much has changed in the way the city celebrates. It used to be a largely Maharashtrian festival- celebrated in peoples homes with different prayer ceremonies and fireworks with family, friends etc.
NOW it’s like Bollywood has taken over with garish displays in basically every corner. Television commercials told me that Ganesh endorses a particular cement company, my Telephone company texted me to tell me that I could download my favorite Ganesh ringtones for free. Every political party had billboards with their leaders and Ganesh showering them and hence their constituents with good wishes for the upcoming year. Sonia Gandhi was photographed almost cuddling Ganesh, ridonk. That my whites, is akin to Hillary Clinton dressing up as the Virgin Mary and cradling baby Jesus in her bosom. Cute.
My favorite was the Mumbai police who had little posters everywhere that diplomat
ically preached ‘Ganesh tells you not to drink and drive’. Seriously!? I thought He didn’t even want me to drink let alone get shitty and need a DD. Even our ancient Gods have grown with time and President Bush still tells us to practice abstinence compared to safe sex. Ok lets not get into that argument now, my head hurts (Could be the just the copious amount of chocolate I have been consuming).
The Grammy is doing well, she is a wee bit (I’m being nice) senile and doesn’t remember much. She is also 640 (and 4‘1“), so a little memory loss is expected. My mother (whose name even Grammy doesn’t remember) urged me to show her my belly button ring in an attempt to jog her memory (she used to be a huge fan of the piercing). Crazy enough, it did, and she laughed and showed it around to everyone else in the fam (most of them were not amused, even my latest little cousin- could also be because she was eating her 56th meal of the day. Lord, she is JUMBO, weighs the same as I and is 10. Ok good. Love her). like the good old days. Adorable little lady.
Speaking of kids, I’d like to think I had a natural magnetism when it came to the critters. They all (strangers and loved ones alike) would flock to me like a moth to a flame with one little smile from me and pull my hair and shit. At a random McDonalds (They have paneer salsa wraps and Aaloo burgers, bananers), I was playing semi-hide-and-go-seek with a little one. This used to be my trademark- after which they would be inviting me to tea parties with their dolls at 4pm. NOW, I think I have crossed the age where they (and their parents) think it’s cute and funny. The little brat looked at her mom all terrified who in turn gave me a stern look. I have crossed the line into pedophilia I think. Damn, I should just invest in 50 cats, inject shit in candy corn, wait for Halloween and call it a night. :-/
Work is going great, I had my first set of interviews today for my study! I didn’t realize how hard this would be. My first patient today was a 23 year old young lady who is HIV+. That’s our age people! Not only that, her little boy is also HIV+. What kills me is that he is 6 years old (which would make her a mother at age 17, eeks). Her husband died of the disease 2 years ago and now she is fighting all alone. I wanted to cry when I heard her story, it’s crazy how people open up when given a chance. For example, her kid was kicked out of school when the administrators found out about his diagnosis. It’s obviously illegal to suspend him from school for this reason, but they found some other ludicrous reason and let him go. After we were done, she introduced me to the little one and I died. I asked him what his name was, he said Hrithik Roshan (a Bollywood actor). In my awkwardness I told him I was Shilpa Shetty. He scoffed at me but then took my hand and didn’t let go for a good 10 mins while I looked at his and her latest CD4 reports.
When I started out this study, I envisioned a quick meeting with parents, get data I needed to put my study together and be done with it. It’s not as easy at it seemed initially when you actually put names, faces, and stories together. Children have been and always will be my weakness (even if they think it’s pedophilia) and seeing them in this plight is awful. Hopefully there’s something we can do soon for little Hrithiks everywhere. Time’s a tickin, maybe we can get Ganesh to endorse our cause.
I have officially learnt (scratch that- taught myself) how to upload videos/pictures from my phone onto my laptop, so rejoooice! I am quite the foolish one when it comes to technology, and I’m not just saying that to sound like ‘that girl’. I have learnt quite a bit of late however and will be happy to help you refragment your hard drive (thanks Ashie!). HAH.
It was the kick-off for yet another religious festival (lasts 10 days), called Ganesh Chaturti so I was in Bombay with the fam at my Grammy‘s home. The last time I was in the country for the festival was when I was a wee little one, aged 11 (same height though) and sooo much has changed in the way the city celebrates. It used to be a largely Maharashtrian festival- celebrated in peoples homes with different prayer ceremonies and fireworks with family, friends etc.
NOW it’s like Bollywood has taken over with garish displays in basically every corner. Television commercials told me that Ganesh endorses a particular cement company, my Telephone company texted me to tell me that I could download my favorite Ganesh ringtones for free. Every political party had billboards with their leaders and Ganesh showering them and hence their constituents with good wishes for the upcoming year. Sonia Gandhi was photographed almost cuddling Ganesh, ridonk. That my whites, is akin to Hillary Clinton dressing up as the Virgin Mary and cradling baby Jesus in her bosom. Cute.
My favorite was the Mumbai police who had little posters everywhere that diplomat
ically preached ‘Ganesh tells you not to drink and drive’. Seriously!? I thought He didn’t even want me to drink let alone get shitty and need a DD. Even our ancient Gods have grown with time and President Bush still tells us to practice abstinence compared to safe sex. Ok lets not get into that argument now, my head hurts (Could be the just the copious amount of chocolate I have been consuming).The Grammy is doing well, she is a wee bit (I’m being nice) senile and doesn’t remember much. She is also 640 (and 4‘1“), so a little memory loss is expected. My mother (whose name even Grammy doesn’t remember) urged me to show her my belly button ring in an attempt to jog her memory (she used to be a huge fan of the piercing). Crazy enough, it did, and she laughed and showed it around to everyone else in the fam (most of them were not amused, even my latest little cousin- could also be because she was eating her 56th meal of the day. Lord, she is JUMBO, weighs the same as I and is 10. Ok good. Love her). like the good old days. Adorable little lady.
Speaking of kids, I’d like to think I had a natural magnetism when it came to the critters. They all (strangers and loved ones alike) would flock to me like a moth to a flame with one little smile from me and pull my hair and shit. At a random McDonalds (They have paneer salsa wraps and Aaloo burgers, bananers), I was playing semi-hide-and-go-seek with a little one. This used to be my trademark- after which they would be inviting me to tea parties with their dolls at 4pm. NOW, I think I have crossed the age where they (and their parents) think it’s cute and funny. The little brat looked at her mom all terrified who in turn gave me a stern look. I have crossed the line into pedophilia I think. Damn, I should just invest in 50 cats, inject shit in candy corn, wait for Halloween and call it a night. :-/
Work is going great, I had my first set of interviews today for my study! I didn’t realize how hard this would be. My first patient today was a 23 year old young lady who is HIV+. That’s our age people! Not only that, her little boy is also HIV+. What kills me is that he is 6 years old (which would make her a mother at age 17, eeks). Her husband died of the disease 2 years ago and now she is fighting all alone. I wanted to cry when I heard her story, it’s crazy how people open up when given a chance. For example, her kid was kicked out of school when the administrators found out about his diagnosis. It’s obviously illegal to suspend him from school for this reason, but they found some other ludicrous reason and let him go. After we were done, she introduced me to the little one and I died. I asked him what his name was, he said Hrithik Roshan (a Bollywood actor). In my awkwardness I told him I was Shilpa Shetty. He scoffed at me but then took my hand and didn’t let go for a good 10 mins while I looked at his and her latest CD4 reports.
When I started out this study, I envisioned a quick meeting with parents, get data I needed to put my study together and be done with it. It’s not as easy at it seemed initially when you actually put names, faces, and stories together. Children have been and always will be my weakness (even if they think it’s pedophilia) and seeing them in this plight is awful. Hopefully there’s something we can do soon for little Hrithiks everywhere. Time’s a tickin, maybe we can get Ganesh to endorse our cause.
7 comments:
I am so glad you clarified your story for the white folks -- because I honestly didn't get what the big deal was until you put it in terms I could understand.
Oh that's really touching---- I wish to put hritik back to school; let me see how. Will keep all posted.. I Luv my baby
--mom
1. stories like this makes me sad.
2. LOVE the pic.
3. love the explanations, refer to what devon said.
4. please defragment every few weeks to keep your harddrive somehwat clean and don't forget to back up your files to the external harddrive you have. :)
for more technical savvy information, please contact me.
1. don't contact ashwini for tech support...she really knows nothing!
2. so i googled shilpa shetty after reading this entry only to find that her name was already stored in my search...looks like i became a little too brown during my stint at hopkins
3. i hope you keep posting to this blog regularly...it's enjoyable and a good way for me to keep tabs on apoorva :)
snaps to the mommy for leaving me a comment :) love you too mommy :)
after reading your blog and remembering our trip to the zoo, and how you dragged me to all the exhibits where the most children were congregated. it is all making sense.. you sketchy sketchy girl :-p
hi auntie!!! apoorva is not really sketchy - i just like making fun of her :) love you girl! <3
I love how Ganesh has a little belly. How dare he be overweight and encourage Indians to be obese?
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