Tips to check an internet malfunction

We usually visit my parents on alternate weekends. That's usually the time they look forward to. To meet and play with their grand child, and enjoy the company of (ahem..) Ady and yours truly.
That's also a time that we try to read on stuff - Trivia, that s absolutely insignificant, but rouses interest. Did you know that 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals? or that 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled? Or that John Wilkes Booth's brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son? That's ok if you didn't. Just search for useless trivia and you'll find it all in there. Here's the site, I got this information from.

Anyway, we either try to learn new things, try finishing unfinished books, paint (that's Ady by the way. And he's an awesome painter. Truly. Will dedicate a blog to his paintings soon), write (me) or just catch up on a movie. (Ady's a big time movie buff. Me- not so much. But I guess it's all a part of being - happily married :-))

So you see, we have a list of activities to look forward to during the weekends. And Dad's BSNL connection is indeed super-fast, and dirt cheap. Well, it's super-fast only to me to be honest, besides mom and dad. I think the net favors the Iyer family, 'Cause whenever Ady tries to use the internet - boom, timed out or 404! And the Engineer that he is, he tries checking out what the problem is almost always. He checks for the connection status, rechecks the modem, the power plugs and what not. He calls me to check if I can be of any help. ( I am not much of an Engineer when it comes to big 'tronical stuff. My reference to the Computer as a big 'tronical stuff, should have given you the idea right away!Hardware is not my cup of tea or orange juice for that matter. So when somebody asks me what my qualifications are, I say an MBA clearly and lower my voice and add Engineer, under my breath). And every time I just laugh out that the computer is acting out to Ady's touch! So he gives up on me and calls Amma for help.

Now in Tamil families, the mapilai, or son-in-law is like the crowned Prince. Whatever he says, has to be adhered to. He is also the most important guest on any occasion. The Father of the girl, who otherwise could be a terror in the house, meekly surrenders to the mapilai's whims and fancies. No dinner, till the mapilai is home. No staying at the mapilai's house for longer than a couple of hours. No tea or caapee (Tamil filter coffee), without first offering to mapilai.

So Amma immediately responds to mapilai's calls and answers dutifully "What is it son? Do you need anything?"
The mapilai responds (he doesn't actually boss around, so becomes uneasy at so much of attention being showered) "Amma the net isn't working. Do you ever face this problem? How do you fix it? The connections, modem response are all fine. I don't think there'll be heavy traffic at this time as well. So was wondering if you knew how to reconnect?"

"Yes! Yes! Son. The traffic is not heavy at this time. But lorries pass through the highway. Do you think that could be a problem?"

I could not suppress my laughter. Ady gave in a very small chuckle.

"No Amma, I am not talking about the vehicular traffic. I am talking about the internet. Anyway.. I just want to know if you've ever faced a problem with the connection and what do you usually do?"

"Oh! I call Prasad, the internet guy", Amma responded trying to figure out what was so funny about the traffic. "He comes and fixes. But it is very easy. We don't need to wait for him. Shall I repair son?"

"Yes Amma!", Ady said, now feeling a little stupid that his Engineering degree was not helping.

Amma came, turned off the main switch. Hit the modem twice. Turned the switch on and behold! we were connected!

"So that's where you learn to beat stuff", Ady remarked to me after profusely thanking Amma. "But remember, my home theater is not a place you should try this out!"

"Why not? I answered. It works doesn't it? :-)"

5Ds and 'Rustic'ated

The last 10 days were simply awesome! We were cut off - literally and figuratively from the urban chaos. We were in places with zero and almost zero connectivity.

The trip was essentially to drop mom-in-law back at Dhaliara - Ady's village in Himachal and let everyone else dole out their coochie-coos for Driti.

Here's a pictorial summary, before the prose :-)


Here are some pics.




Day 1: Saturday: 8th May: Delhi: Driti quite enjoyed the flight and really jelled well with the air-hostesses. She always gets free stuff when she travels. I bet that's because of her height and limited vocabulary.
Didi and Jiju picked us up at the airport. They are in the process of moving into a new house (read bungalow) and it was indeed very sweet of them to want to host us with all the shifting work. Driti also got a chance to bond with her Katyayini Jia. ( Jia=older sister in Jiju's side of the family). In the evening, we went to catch up with old friends from XL. Pattu, Sudha, Nishant, Tasha, Priya and Sayan. It's really nice to see that all of them were XL couples, with the exception of Priya and Sayan. Boy! Did we have a great time. It was nice to catch up with friends after sooo long. All the women - trying to be domesticated for a change- were the kitchen experimenting with various dishes. The Burmese Soup I made seemed to be a hit! Wish we could have stayed a little longer so Ady could get a chance to taste Sudha's chicken. Hubby dearest is almost turning herbivore - courtesy - yours truly :-)

Day 2: Delhi/ Noida continued: We met with 2 sets of Mamajis, Bhaiyas and Bhabhis.Katyayini accompanied us to Noida. She wanted to be with her sis. While at Noida, Aarushi, another niece, about a year older to Katyayini, found the ideal playmate in her sis. So the same age girls kicked it off, leaving Driti to find and destroy stuff.
In the evening, we decided we'd meet with our long lost friends. (Purvi - it'd been 2 years since I last saw her, and Aishwarya - 1 year since Ady met him). We met at the Great mall in Noida and Driti gave Purvi masi a strawberry shake bath! :-) Really nice to catch up with old friends I must say! Especially since they'd only be extra fond of your kids, and won't complain at the mess they create!!

We left for Delhi - Saket in the evening. We missed meeting Sahasrajeet, Driti's second cousin as he had already beat us to Palampur the previous day. So we (read mostly I) cribbed to Bhabhi on the injustice meted out to Driti - for sending her brother off on exile.

Day 3: Dhaliara - The train journey from Delhi to Chandigarh was as usual replete with pranks from Princess Driti. The poor gentleman who was forced to share the seat with us in the chair car train, had to swap his biscuits, spoons, newspaper and toffees with Ady. Driti only spared the tea flask - because it was too heavy for her to lift! But she did sing out her high pitched song to please him toward the end of the journey.

Papa received us in Chd. The road trip to Dhaliara was simply scenic at its best. We stopped a while at Bombay Picnic Spot and Driti refused to go back to the car. She thoroughly enjoyed herself. The swings, the see-saw, the merry-go-around et al did the magic.We enjoyed ourselves as well. Lot's of stuff at dirt cheap prices. Need we say more.Yes - and lots of food, that's a WIFM as well for food lovers. But the fear of Father-in-law kept us on our toes. He's not the guy from the military per se - but he does have all the characteristics. Atleast the part of being absolutely punctual. He is the one person, who makes sure we're the most well behaved too! Though I must say, his grand daughter is making him a lot less stern. She's perhaps the first child he's changed the diaper for!! We have it on record, just in case he backs off from our treasured claim!

Day 4: Dehi Pukhar : A small strip in Dhaliara, this is where we actually stayed. Peaceful and no connectivity at all. We got to see buffaloes (actually), snakes, mongoose and animals we would never have cared to notice in the noise of the city! Driti now actually knows that the cow say.. 'Maaaaa' Experiential Learning if you will!

Day 5, 6: Dalhousie : Sudha, Pattu joined us in Dalhousie from Delhi. We visited khajjiar (also known as the Switzerland of India), did a lil zorbing and horse- riding through the apple gardens! Th best part was when the cowboy (for a lack of better word), carried Driti and walked along with the horse I was riding for about 7 mins, when she refused to sit, and remarked " Everyone has kids ma'am, they are never heavy!", when I asked him to stop for a while, if he felt she was getting heavier. His reply brought a tear.

Later in the evening, we visited a Moti Mahal restaurant. It was a restaurant, a grocery store, a bakery , an ice-cream parlour all rolled into one. We had read reviews about this place. This was supposed to be the best in quality in Dalhousie. It was a little unbelievable. Anyway, there was no way to dispute the contention, so we ate the oil soaked koftas, paneer without complaining.

Our post lunch walk brought us to another restaurant. Moti Mahal Deluxe. Ahem! So much for name sakes!


Day 7: Road trip - back to Dehi Pukhar

Day 8: Dugri, Ludhiana: To attend a friend's wedding. Reminded us of our wedding. Ostentatious Punjabi style fun wedding! Good food and music!

Day 9: Dehi Pukhar : Hi to friends and family and prep back to Hyderabad.

Day 10: Back home! For the sake of the Ds I'd like write Domalguda or Durgam Cheruvu, alas w stay in Hi-Tech City :-(

This is definitely one trip we'll never forget. We got to meet almost everyone and visit places we'd been planning to in a while!

Himachal, Friends and Family truly rock!!

Guyum

Driti speaks quiet fluently these days. And she speaks super fast. The only problem is it's difficult to understand what she says, if you're not involved in the entire context.

Like us, she has her set of favorite words as well. 'Deetee' being the frequently used. She has another favorite. This is a close second to 'Deetee'. It's 'Guyum'. Now I think it means 'Give'. 'Cause whenever she uses that word, she takes something away from my hands.

I'm holding a bottle of water. "Guyum", and that's being pulled out of my hands. I'm holding 'Monkey Baby', a term we use to refer to her Monkey soft toy and her at the same time. 'Guyum', and there's a tug at the monkey's tail.

So I've decided 'Guyum' is baby for 'Give'. Like Rachel, who immediately checked the dictionary out when Emma uttered 'gleba', in an episode of 'Friends', I did a quick net search. Perhaps I have a genius at home too. Go ahead do a Google search. If you do find something interesting let me know. For all that I could find out was baby to me. Nothing made sense. And I don't even have the context here!

Monkey Baby and I would be able to get that missing piece of the puzzle! :-)

Until then, Buyum (I think that's baby for Bye!)

Who's Birthday is it Anyway?

I am very bad at remembering Birthdays, anniversaries or any important dates. (Strange considering I scored a 97% in History in School). May be its the age catching up.

You tell me its your birthday tomorrow, I will still not remember unless my BB or my calendar reminds me on the day. And if its not there on my calendar, it's not your special day! So even if you show me your birth certificate, chances are I'd think they're fudged.

My mom, and Mom-in-law on the other hand are memory machines. Even if it's a cousin's cousin's, sister-in-law's, niece's son's wedding day - they'd know. So apart from my calendar, the only 2 people I trust are my moms.

The place I am therefore stuck is when it is their birthday! Who's gonna tell me then? Yes! you guessed it. Mom reminds me of Mon-in-law's and Mom-in law of my Mom's. Yes. I am that shameless! Sorry.. but it just doesn't register. (I am good with numbers though. So if you thought it is a problem in registering numbers, I'd say the diagnosis is incorrect. I can tell you the increment percentage, attrition numbers, employee codes any time of the day. So there! You can tell me what the problem is now!)

So tomorrow apparently is my father in-law's birthday. How did I know? This cute message from mom! I love you ma! What would I do without you!

"hello dear
pls don't forget, tomorrow is ur father-in-law's b.day i.e. 2.5.2010. wish him as nd when u get up. i know u r vry busy lady , hence as a personnel assistant, nd well wisher , i am reminding u da.
okay!
my lov  to u and ur hubby and mil. nd my special lov nd kisses to my s.heart...rani" himachal ki rani:
ok beta tke care bye"


Now yes, since it is Papa's Birthday,  Mom-in-law won't tell us. I need to be the responsible bahu and remind   Ady, before Mama reminds us tomorrow.Thanks Amma for helping me add a feather to my cap. But just a small favor....Could you please remind me tomorrow morning? :-)