Of Newborn Babies and Wedding Bells

You will always be reminded of a song by the Pakistani band Strings when you meet Swaty's little kid. Well, that's because the newborn is named Dhaani. Is it because hubby Manas is a Strings fan or did the little angel sport a greenish tint. We'll have to ask Swaty to find out.

In any case, Dhaani was born on the evening of December 14, a good ten days ahead of schedule. Looks like she didn't really want to share her birthday with Jesus.

Bride-to-be Sheelpa Kothari also missed Christmas by a few days, scheduling the wedding on December 29 in her hometown of Indore.

And pray what does the groom do? Well, Mihir works in a multinational bank. That makes the couple an interesting combo of sports journo and banker.

Of Neck Braces and Natural Icecreams

You would have thought wearing a neck brace for chronic spondylitis would be literally a pain in the neck but Sukanya Mohapatra seems to be coping well.

The Oriya lass is raving about the "Natural" brand of icecream she tasted in Mumbai. And this is a big deal coming from someone who hates icecream.

Her only complaint - "Natural" icecream is only available in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Ahmedabad so there's no chance of her getting some in good ol' Delhi.

Wonder what is so great about this brand. Go to Mumbai and see.

Of Good Tidings and Wet Nappies

Few things in life arrive right on time - like Misha's newborn daughter.

Sana breathed her first gulp of air on September 26 this year, on the expected date of delivery.

But I wonder what her name means.

Perhaps Misha can throw some light on this - after all she was named after a cute little Russian teddy bear.

Of Cynical Reporters and Beatific Smiles

There are few rewards in journalism but the biggest one of them is when your work inspires society to do something.

The usually cynical Ambika Pendharkar was pleasantly surprised when a reader rang up her paper and spoke to her about a piece she had done about an NGO for mentally-handicapped children in Pune.

Turns out the benevolent gentleman had been inspired to help out at the NGO and do his bit for society.

Well, now if you spot one particularly beaming specimen with a beatific smile wandering the streets of Pune, it might just be Ambika.

Of Busy Crossings and Speeding Vehicles

Last month, Chennai-based Sangeetha was walking back home one evening when a Tavera SUV backed into her at a busy crossing.

Sangeetha wasn't seriously injured but as she said later - the experience of lying down on the road with vehicles whizzing past a few inches from her wasn't a pleasant one.

The incident ended happily - the driver and some passers-by took Sangeetha to a nearby hospital where she was treated for minor bruises and discharged.

Of Tenants and Houses without Windows

By Mriganka Dadwal

Prologue: They say a life sans books is like a room without windows

I could never have imagined the former but that the latter exists came quite as a shocker to me.

It all started the day my current landlady said those three dreaded words to me - U MUST VACATE!!!

Life has never been the same.

My quest for a house turned into urgency, urgency into desperation and desperation into do-or-die thou must.

It's been two months. By now I'm Google personified for all practical purposes. But still gotta meet accurate search results.

Not that I have not undergone the usual rigmarole of meeting a broker, negotiating the price, checking out endless buildings. Even stooped down to questioning local vendors, and asking chattering auntyjis if the locality can accommodate a harmless single occupant.

Not that I have not been shown something which has some semblance to a house.

I say some semblance to a house coz they all have four walls, one door blah blah - so architecturally speaking they qualify to be a house - but that's where the buck stops.

And that's where the phrase "a house sans windows" comes to my mind.

Architecturally it's a shortcoming, aesthetically a sin.

To build a house without windows.

To erect four walls without sparing a thought about who will occupy it.

More importantly will the occupant feel at home in the house???

Does this phenomenon limit itself to aesthetic felony on part of our society? Well, to imagine that a tenant is a tenant is a tenant ... nothing less, nothing more?

Or does it boil down deeper. Our tendency to shut out anything which might lighten our soul and brighten our life?

Are we becoming so accustomed to shutting out what comes naturally to us that we create barriers where we need to create channels?

Or is it plain simple that anything which shows us ourselves too clearly must be made a social taboo? Coz we are afraid that the reality won't be flattering?

I don't know the answer but I know one thing for sure and I speak figuratively as well. Someone has to put their foot down and let in the light. I refuse to put up in a house sans windows.

Of Meal Freebies and Dead Roaches

Zee Business anchor Mriganka Dadwal is having a bit of luck these days. Turns out when she was out lunching at Pizza Hut, one of her pasta treats was served with a dead roach in it.

Mriganka didn't say a word. She just threw the waiter a frosty look and pointed to the baked pest. Minutes later, the dude reappeared and said the entire meal (pizza, garlic bread, iced pesticide) sans roach was complimentary. Pizza Hut made amends and Mriganka walked out with a free meal.

The same thing happened with Sunandita. There was no roach involved this time. But Pizza Hut did screw up her order and Sunandita got the full benefit.

Of Rare Sightings and Celebratory Treats

Talking of roaches, Sumathi Chandrasekharan was in town for a few days. The blue-blooded Keralite was reminiscing about her experiences in Singapore, where she is currently studying.

The place is spotlessly clean and Sumathi kinda missed the mess back home in India. So she was understandably delighted when she spotted a roach in Singapore. She celebrated the rare sighting with a trip to her favourite Indian restaurant there. Obviously, Sumathi remains a desi at heart.

Of Orkutian Fans and Tech Gimmicks

By Anonymous

A month or two ago, Parul Sharma found an Orkut fan who visited her profile every now and then. But this passive soul never wrote a scrap nor sent a teaser to her.

Parul, known as Miss No Malice for her humanitarian views, failed to guess who the mysterious fan was as his profile didn't give her any clues.

Flummoxed at reading this stranger's name in the list of visitors to her Orkut profile, the sassy Delhiite sought advice from a friend who had gone through a similar experience. This tech-savvy correspondent asked Parul to make some changes in her profile. And Voila! Henceforth the alien name never appeared in her visitors' list.

Analysis by our research bureau showed that after Parul made those changes, the number of her fans doubled and she got almost a hundred scraps praising her newly uploaded photo album.

Of Holidays and Nature's Oxymoron

Foreign Desk in-charge Vandana Ramnani recently took a well-deserved break from her usual work routine. She travelled via Uttarkashi to a little-known tourist spot called Raithal, 182 km from the holy city of Rishikesh.

And from what she had to say about the "awesome" trip, we can only imagine how fulfilling Vandana's tryst with Nature was.

The river Bhagirathi is so very pure and beautiful and as you come down and see the Tehri dam it gives you the sense of danger ahead. What if it would break. I'll call it nature's oxymoron. On the one hand you have beauty and on the other the sense of destruction which may befall... the magnitude of destruction.

Of Glad Tidings and Good Wishes

It's the time to make merry - the sheer number of weddings, infants and new jobs over the past few months has been mind-boggling.

Legal eagle Krishnadas Rajagopal tied the knot with The Hindu lass Anima Balakrishnan. Another legal eagle R Balaji has also reportedly taken the plunge into married life. Setuka Mahajan will do so with a Bangalore-based engineer early next month. Also waiting in line are Hanit Kaur and Ratul Ray Chaudhuri. And I suppose you already know about Manash Pratim Bhuyan.

There were resignations galore too. Shambhu Jha took off for Aajtak. Sovi Vidyadharan found greener pastures in NDTV while Ratul did so in Reuters, Bangalore. Liji Ravindran's taken time off for research even as Prasant Kumar Sahoo and Shohini tried their luck in the pink papers. Ashutosh Joshi left for Business Standard, Mumbai.

On the plus side, there are plenty of interesting newbies too - including News Editor Rezaul Laskar's wife who joined the Desk recently. And the interesting case of Sumit Upadhyaya who gave up life as a reporter for the rewards of the Business Desk. And of course all our friends who were enjoying themselves abroad - Achinta Borah is back from France while Manoj C G and Sukanya Mohapatra just returned from assignments in Singapore.

And as for the storks who came visiting, it seems girls were more in demand this time around. Alok Sharma was blessed with a daughter (Jhanvi), Kiran with P... (she's reportedly mulling over names beginning with P) and Richa with ??? (Yep, her little one hasn't been named yet) And we hear Jitesh Wadhawan's infant son Kabir is looking more and more like him. So, don't be too surprised if he grows up to be a journalist.

Anyhow, we offer everyone (and others whose names were inadvertently missed) our heartiest congratulations.

Update 1 Parul Sharma's gone right ahead and joined The Hindu. And as for Kiran's newborn - the two-month old has been named Paridhi

Of Good Samaritans and Mobile Phones

Chandigarh damsel Misha Pillai has quite a reputation of being a Good Samaritan. But even Misha was taken aback by what two youths in this bustling Punjabi metropoils did for her.

Our story begins with hubby Jasbir presenting Misha with a swanky new mobile phone. On November 3, Misha was commuting to office in a rickshaw - yapping away to glory to her dear husband.

Suddenly, two guys on a motorcycle slowed down near the rickshaw, snatched the phone from her and zipped away leaving behind a tearful and shocked Misha. Two other youths (also on a bike) witnessed the incident and sped off in pursuit.

As for Misha, she informed the police but was told there was little hope of getting it back since she could not provide any details on the phone-snatchers.

Back at her office, she found two youths waiting for her. Wonder of wonders, they had her phone with them. It turned out that the youths had followed the snatchers to another city, had an altercation (one of them sported a black eye), got the handset back and searched the phone's contact list to get in touch with Misha.

Well, Misha dubbed them Good Samaritans but we prefer to stick to this 20th-century idiom - What goes around comes around.

Of the TV Journo and the Sea

Zee Business anchor Mriganka Dadwal got her first glimpse of the sea recently. It seems Miss Dadwal was covering a fashion shoot in Pondicherry and was returning to her quarters when she spied the blue waters of the Bay of Bengal. She screamed so loudly that the driver of the car is said to have lost his hearing.

Anyhow, the poor guy immediately applied the brakes and watched as Miss Dadwal ran down to the water's edge and started splashing around in obvious delight. Well, we all know how much fun being on the beach is. After all, it was Mriganka's first tryst with the sea. We wish her many more such wondrous experiences.