The phone rings. The lady of the house who has now mastered the art of changing hats at the blink of an eye is not sure which role she’s gonna assume next. That of a friend, family member, architect, consultant or a pre-sales techno. While she takes a quick look at the caller ID, the 13 month old toddler who has been keeping herself busy by practicing climbing up and down the couch, squeals in excitement, on yet another successful climb. A quick decision is taken to let the call go to voicemail. Two minutes later, the voicemail is played. Production system broken! Need help now!

There is this stay-at-home, naughty and audible toddler in the house, so the lady only takes scheduled calls from clients. There is an unwritten rule in the house for the husband to stay home and take care of toddler, whenever the said situation arises. But, every now and then, there are rare events when an unexpected phone call turns adventurous. Must add that the contracts clearly state – no phone support. But..

This day.. the man was out and the lady knew he wouldn’t be back for another 4 hours. No way on earth the toddler who just woke would go back to sleep in the next few hours. The lady straps the toddler in the high chair, plays Barney with just enough sound to reach the toddler’s ears. She then moves swiftly to the other corner of the room, sits cramped in between the dining table and the futon, with the wi-fi enabled laptop in hand, ready to take on the issue.

Returns the customer’s call and without any further delay, they kick start the debugging. Close to where the lady is sitting, lies this talking car wash station toy(given by a friend). This one is very loud and has no volume adjustment control. The best part, it has a sensor-based trigger. Supposedly when the toy car passes through the car wash station, it says something like – Cars coming through, watch out. Followed by an Elmo’s giggle. And many other such things.

This time however, there was no car to be found anywhere in the vicinity, nor was there any hand movement below the sensor. Yet, it suddenly started talking. Just in time. Lady fumbles to the customer, reaches the toy, frantically searching for the on/off button. While there was a mute button right in the communication instrument, lady decides to mute her thinking capacity instead and fiddles with the toy, triggering the sensor left, right and center. Until the sensible person from the other side asks if everything’s okay. And that he will call back in few minutes.

Is April the best month yet? A jam packed month with so many interesting happenings. The month started with the inception of the mega online shower. Followed by a successful launch of our company’s social networking site. Just while I was soaking in the success of the shower and a decently successful launch, I come to find Hrithik Roshan is my distant relative. So what if it was just a dream?? If Hillary Clinton can be the ninth cousin to Angelina Jolie, why can’t I be related to Hrithik? I am not even crossing ethnic borders here. Read on…

* * * * *
Much has been written on this mega event a bunch of us woman bloggers hosted for the preggies. Its good to be late sometimes as all I got to do now is to link up.

Linking a few that I have read so far, will update as I read… Tharini’s version, Kodi’s mom’s version, Boo’s version, Gauri’s version, Dotmom’s version, Poppin’s mom’s version.

It felt like being in college again. We all contributed in some form or the other. However I must give special credit to Tharini, Gauri and Altoid for the flawless execution and round the clock support. And mayG for the site design. We all contributed, some riddling away to glory, some of us creating a book summarizing the event, while some entertained the rest with their sense of humor. Close to 3000 emails, numerous chat sessions, the excitement, the chaos, the fun, witty talks and lot more. What a perfect bunch we were!

* * * * *
The last couple of months have been crazy at the work front. A project I took upon myself, in spite of numerous warnings from the LH that it could be physically and mentally draining. This is something I had been eying for some time now. But with two young kids and my adhoc time availability, I wasn’t sure I could take it to a logical completion. Have I mentioned before I don’t like to sleep over an unfinished task? I procrastinate the start to the extent of making them obsolete, for the fear of not being able to complete it, even if it is as simple a chore as folding laundry.
Where there’ s a will, there’s a way. I so wanted to do this, that I adjusted a few things, cut down on many many things. Yes, sleep and blogging included. Kind of got obsessed after a while. It’s an ongoing project, still not there, where I would like it to be, but taking into consideration the resource and time constraints, I am very happy with the outcome so far. This is my first real launch, something I conceived and delivered, from scratch. I have just finished the first 100 meters in the race, its still a long road to reach the finish line of the marathon. A good start is half the race run, is how I like to look at it And the joy to see your own creation, be it anything, is immense and worth every sweat.

* * * * *

That Friday, while we were making headline news in the blog world, I also had a friend and her family over at my place for dinner. One of the many conversations we had lead to the studly Hrithik Roshan. I was asking her to watch his version of Krazzy 4 song. And she replies she wants to retain his Jodha Akbhar image. The conversation that barely crossed 2 minutes was enough to enter my sub conscious mind, I think.

The next afternoon, I slept alongside the girls. I don’t or rather can’t sleep in the afternoons, but when I sleep, I can give Kumbhakaran a run for his life. Well, we are having a family meet. Some 4 families I think. Hrithik Roshan is also there with his wife Suzanne, though Suzanne and the LH are nowhere to be seen. I tell Hrithik that my friends don’t believe he is our family friend and a distant relative. He gives a sheepish smile and asks Why? Then, completely out of context I tell him there is a very nice restaurant few miles from here that serves lip licking 5 course meals. He replies – Any place that charges more than 10$ a meal, he won’t go. Period. Some people are not cut out to brag, why don’t I get it? Even if it is a dream. Two days later the pictures from the family meeting are on his web site. So much for blogging anonymous. Go figure!!

* * * * *
Dlittle is now running all over the house threatening us to climb onto anything and everything she can find and D wrote A to Z in a piece of paper all by herself. These deserve a post of their own, the next one that is.
* * * * *