18 January 2017

Royters reports: Former President HW Bush and wife Barbara Bush hospitalised

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/18/politics/george-h-w-bush-hospitalized/

Unsubstantiated reports claim that, faced with the prospect of having to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration event day after tomorrow, all the currently living former Presidents and former First Ladies have enquired with their respective doctors about the possibility of checking into a hospital πŸ™‚

15 January 2017

Nikispeak – Yoga Pose

After the half marathon yesterday and the morning run today, my left quads continue to stiffen up. To ease it a little, I was trying some Yoga stretching at home. I think the specific pose is called Supta Virasana, or something like that. Basically, you sit down with your butt resting on your feet and both legs folded at the knee and parallel to each other. And then you slowly lay back by lowering yourself till your head and back rest on the floor with you looking up into the ceiling.

While this is an excellent way of stretching the quads from end to end, it is not a particularly easy pose for me. Slowly lowering myself backwards is painful and then getting up is another problem.

I am pretty sure I am not a pretty sight in between – when I am laying down in that pose. Nikita, who was walking by, removed any such doubts in my mind this morning. She had one look at me on the floor and said “Dad, your face screams constipation” πŸ™‚

13 January 2017

Ah! How I wish that girl never grows up….

Facebook reminded me of a “Nikispeak” moment from 2012 on this day. She was all of 7 years old that time. This is what the post said…

“Last night, after landing from DC, Tasha, Niki and I were having dinner together and we started naming all the NFL football teams. We started from the West going East – Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego and were already moving to Denver and Arizona, when Nikita piped up “Does San Diego have a lot of electronics?”. Tasha and I were like – “What? Why? …. Oh!” and then we were on the floor laughing….”

Good news is that Niki has not lost any of that sense of humor or feistiness.
Bad news is that San Diego will not have a football team any more…

6 January 2017

Nikispeak – New Year’s Eve

Reached home a little late at around 10:30 PM or so after the India trip. Nikita was at the kitchen table doing her studies. After some time we started having dinner together and were exchanging notes about our Holidays.

As a reference, I was in India and she was in Dallas with Natasha and Sharmila. Also, as a further reference, “masi”, in our language Bengali roughly means “aunt”. Actually it is used to address your mom’s sister. But it is common practice to call an lady who would be roughly your parents’ age as “masi”.

Finally we came to New Year’s Eve.

“What did you do, for New Year’s?”, she asked.
“I was fast asleep. How about you?”
“Oh! I spent most of it being surrounded by a lot of drunk “masis” “.

πŸ™‚

Seems like nothing has changed in Dallas in ten years πŸ™‚

22 December 2016

‘Tis the season to be jolly..

This is one hilarious family!!!
Last night, it was pretty late by the time I came home from Milwaukee. I had a quick dinner and went off to sleep.

Early this morning, I woke up and was making coffee for the family when I noticed what the two daughters have been up to! In one of those rare moments of sisterly collaboration, Natasha – who is home from New York – and Nikita have put some some Christmas wish lists on the refrigerator. I wish I could say there was no selfish desire behind this.

What is really funny is the content in the lists… Looks like Natasha wants some colorful pens (that is sooooo me) and a few books. It also says – “any one book” lest we thought she is crazy thinking she wants more than one book. And get this – permission to dye her hair!! An 18 year old asking for permission??? I must have done something right!!

Niki – spoken like Niki – went straight to the point – money! And another dog!! And no Saturday math!!! And if she got all that, she was down with some world peace and all that mundane stuff!!!

Sharmila, no doubt, worn by a whole day of the two sisters under the same roof just wants peace and serenity. To which one of them wrote “No promises”!!

And finally dad had a clean slate, till somebody – and I am going to go out on a limb and suggest Nikita – wrote down her impression of daddy really wants – get this – “Facebook Likes” apparently!!!

Somewhere Zuckerberg must be high fiving himself!!!

18 December 2016

Nikispeak – or rather, Niki action

Nikita had to go to a friend’s party. Apparently, the dress code was “ugly sweater”. After finishing up some math with her, I told her that she probably should get upstairs and get ready and asked her which sweater was she planning to wear. She went upstairs and after about ten minutes came back to ask me what I thought of it.

It took me a second to realize that she had taken one of her sweaters and had duct taped a good size mirror to it. It took me more than a second to figure out how it was supposed to be “ugly”. Then it hit me!!!

That was outrageously funny, wicked smart and really, really mean at the same time. And such are the days that she really makes me proud of her πŸ™‚

14 December 2016

Tables have been turned…

Niki is at an extracurricular activity and I am waiting outside. Sharmila has reached home and I got a call from her “Are there any eggs at home?”. I am sure she has noticed the completely clean refrigerator in the kitchen by now. I asked her to look in the refrigerator in the garage (where I had put in the thoughtfully bought extra carton of eggs).

And just now, I sent her by email a list of all the weekend activities and parties I have signed her up for like she does to me every weekend πŸ™‚

Who is wearing the pants in our house now? πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

14 December 2016

“Finish all the food”, she said…

“Check”

You probably remember the long set of instructions she had left for Niki and myself on the refrigerator before she left for India. You might also remember that one of the instructions was to finish off all the food.

Last time the refrigerator was this clean was when we moved from Dallas to Atlanta.

Nikita and I just realized that the joke might be on us this evening. Sharmila will be home very soon. What are we going to eat this evening?

I think in Computer Science this was the classical off-by-one error!!!

14 December 2016

Nikispeak – “Mr.Mom”

Sharmila is coming back today. Fortunately, Niki and I did not bring the house down during her absence (or at least not yet, although the dog has threatened to help every day). On the contrary, we got every homework done on time, got up on time everyday, were early for school every day, did not miss any of her activities and what not. What is more, I cleaned the house every morning before Niki woke up, made her lunch, breakfast and pretty much held the office work and home and her activities together. With some aplomb, if I might add πŸ™‚

Bringing that to her attention, I mentioned to her this morning- “See, I can be Mr. Dad and Mr. Mom”
She: There is no such thing as a “Mr. Mom”
Me: Yes, there is.
She: Well, you might be Mr. Mom but you will never be a “Mr. English Teacher”

Ah! You cannot win them all!!