Vedika - Day 311

Pictures from last two months...

Vedika - Day 310

Today was the first day Vidhi participated in Government of India's nationwide Oral Pulse Polio drive. She was given vaccination drops at nearby dispensary in morning and got herself a neat little blue mark on small finger of left hand.

Ignoring him would've been the best way

This post is summary of few life lessons. Lessons that we the people and media of this nation don't seem to learn even when repeatedly encountered.

When was the last time someone changed his opinion because of your convincing argument against it? If you are among the world's top most elocutionist and honest in your self-assessment, you probably have changed opinions of less than 10% of people you tried changing opinion of. If you are an average man, number will be less than one in hundred. Lesson: Someone doesn't just his opinion just because you have few choice arguments against it. Specially not if person had opinion on the topic to begin with and was not on the fence. Changing someone's view points takes (at least) months of words and action combination (among other things).

Every action has cost and consequence. Every action is motivated by incentives. What did one want when one do something? Are you giving him the very same thing even though you claim not to? Lesson: Focus on the root motivation.

I try to keep this blog free from news-dependent posts to focus on ideas and not events and people. But I just have to say this: Asaram Ji, you've won. Public of this country played exactly as you wanted.

What did he want when he stated unreasonable opinion? What did reaction of public and media gave him?

Let's recap current version: He said obviously stupid thing to small gathering in small town in Rajasthan. People and media reacted, criticized, made fun of, and made him retract his argument. He was instantly famous all over India. From the above life lesson we can be sure that neither he nor his followers really changed their belief: those who agreed with him wouldn't change the view now and those who didn't don't need to change. What will be gained by wasting resource and money on him? Say, really, unto his heart, he changes his mind, so what? Is that's best use of hundreds of media hours, lakhs of man hours, and lakhs of rupees?

Let's imagine alternative history in case people weren't stupid. He said obviously stupid thing to small gathering in small town in Rajasthan. Some of his followers who agreed with him, nodded in agreement. Those who didn't, disagreed in heart, and probably decided to not continue to follow him. End of story.

Freedom of speech is a tough concept to understand. We instantly align with freedom when curb is placed on freedom of press or public expression. Yet, we need to understand that very same freedom implies such bad statements too. And we need to have them their way. Criticizing others for saying what you don't agree with doesn't go hand in hand with demanding freedom to say what you agree with, be it good or bad. And until we have that maturity, we don't really want the freedom per se, we just want freedom for us.

There have been, are and will be idiots in the world. A wise man learns to ignore them. Rest are idiots in different category.

Vedika - Day 294

Things Vidhi picked up in last few days..

Able to shake her head really fast from side to side to declare her NO.

Able to hand things over to another person - more from willingness and gesture point of view rather than physical capability

Able to start dragging herself when sitting and vice-versa i.e. better control of her own motions

Able to pee on cue when made to sit on potty training seat

This is it (for reason of shame and sensibility, her usage shall not be shown :)

Vedika - Day 276

Baby completed 9 months yesterday. Soon, her life outside the womb will be longer than inside. She is also making rapid advances in learning.

She has picked out 'bye' sound and is very vocal about it. Once her bye-ing starts, it doesn't stop short of about 30 bye-s. She also moves her head sideways to indicate 'no' and often it's what is implied, though we are not sure if she understands that this gestures means 'no'. She'd always indicate 'no' when attempting to feed her yet open her mouth.

Two days ago, she fell down from bed and cut her upper lip and bloodied her face. Next day she fell from her father's lap when he sat on ground. Such falls and accidents are soon going to be part of growing up but they break the heart. Her howls are heart wrenching.

Vedika got her Measles injection yesterday but was exceptionally brave and cried for no more than 30 seconds when injected. She is 71cm tall with head girth of 43cm and weight of 7.6kg. She gained about one kg in last three months. According to this chart, she should be 70cm and 8.2kg.

Vedika - Day 262

Finally! Baby makes a move.

Vedika was observed dragging herself on the floor in short spurts today. She pushes herself on her elbows and lifts her hips to move forward. As of now she does this infrequently and for short distances.

She has also picked up clapping surprisingly fast. Yesterday, there wasn't any. Today, they won't stop. Of course, her claps don't make noise yet, but she is enjoying clapping whenever she is happy, which she is for most of the times these days. Baby really has grown up suddenly.

Her acute hearing sense is visible even more. Her head turns quickly to locate even faintest of noise.

She is smiling much often, laughing still sparingly. Is able to stand holding up longer, likes to stand and climb up. Three small teeth are making their way on her upper gums.

She has finally become one who is looked forward to meet after long day at work. Cannot wait to see her. Miss her leaving in the morning. Happy times ahead!

Vedika - Day 248

Vidhi has learned dexterity with fingers now. Her cutest task (recently) include gently tapping keys on keyboard of laptop.

Vidhi has demonstrated fascination with laptops early on. One reason could be ubiquitous use of them by her mom, dad and chachu all around. She would leap from arms of whoever is holding her to be able to touch the laptop. She would typically, until about two weeks ago, bang her palms and enjoy whatever pops up on the screen because of that. These days, though, she seems to be treating it with bit more respect. She'd still bang her palm on keyboard but after that gently tap few keys couple of times (as shown in picture) before lifting her hand and banging again. To aid to her merriment, we've given her an old non-working laptop (with blank screen shown in picture). She definitely likes to work with them!

Her improvement in object maneuvering is visible in others areas too. When pulling a toy behind a wire, she now knows to first move the wire aside, and then pull the toy. She has learned to lift and rotate larger objects too such as small plate or plastic bottle. She has recently started to enjoy the sound things make when banged together or against the floor.

Her bodily strength also shows marginal improvement. She can hold her neck and torso very well now. When turned upside down, she'd arch her back to resist full flat hanging. She has shown potential to rise by herself when lying down to come to sitting position.

When she wants to talk she'd make long 'aaaa' sound clearly trying to communicate something. She likes to be thrown around, lifted up, moved, turned, etc. Baby is becoming bratty and we are loving her!

Day 246

Pictures from 8th month of Vidhi...

Day 242

Happy Diwali Vidhi!

Day 240

This is the day Vidhi would like not to know, but for sake of completion on her journal, and for inevitability of such incidents with infants, following shall be mentioned.



I was negligent, admittedly, for I was busy reading book and didn't see her poop. It must have been about 10 minute when something caught corner of my her. Vidhi has been playing with something like a ball, except that, her ball was with me. As you can imagine, she had soiled herself quite well — quantum being more than normal, to make matters worse — and had started playing in it. When she was taken to bath, her arms and dress were well covered with scraps of stinky stuff.



I am sorry beta, but it's a story to tell nonetheless!