The baby turn ten months next week. It’s quite scary how quickly time is flying. He’s crawling around the house with gay abandon and causing wanton destruction with much of our carefully organized living room. He pulling himself up on stuff and is trying to stand now. Yesterday he learnt how to drink using a straw and celebrated by replacing his lunch meal with a tall sippycup of h2o. He seems to be a rather pleasant character in general…almost always smiling and seemingly enjoying life. I wonder if this apparent personality trait will stay with him for life.

Gosh. So much change and it’s so wonderful to be a part of his voyage of discovery of life.

I was saddened to hear about Michael Jackson’s passing yesterday.  Partly because it’s a pity that his life was lost when he was relatively quite young.  But I guess it was also a stark reminder of my mortality in general…more so because the pop start was such an iconic figure while I was growing up.

Speaking of growing up, the baby is rapidly growing into toddlerhood.  He can’t quite walk yet but he’s pulling himself up wherever possibleand trying to stand/balance by himself.  He’s nowhere close to speaking…or saying a coherent word.  But he does make a heck of a lot of noise.  At 8 months old, it’s quite hard to shush him without getting quite loud myself.  This doesn’t make for happy situations when we’re out in public.

For the most part, one can trundle through life transparent to the travails of other ordinary humans.  The exceptions, of course, are the glimpses of homelessness and poverty that one encounters on the occasional street corner.  I am, also, refering to life in the United States.  For in India, the misfortunes of millions are so plain to see, that most are blind to it (or innured to it).  Anyway, I digress.

Today, I bought a second-hand elliptical machine.  For those of you who don’t know what this thing is…well, simply stated, it’s a rather large device that you can use for aerobic exercise workouts.  Given that I and someone who shall remain unnamed are struggling to stay fit, this may be a worthy investment.

The person I bought it from is a former General Motors (GM) employee who worked in their factories.  I got to chatting with him and he told me that he’s moved through 3 different factories (as each one shut down, he’d get moved to another).  Until a few weeks ago, he commuted from Maryland to Delaware to work in GM’s delaware plant…but that too has not shut down and he has officially been let go.  He’s not sure what to do now.  Part of him feels like going back to school.  Part of him is scared of doing so….he’s about 35 or so…and to go back to study a new field has got to be daunting.   I can’t begin to imagine how tough this must be for him and hundreds of others in his situation.

These, I suppose, are the unfortunate victims of free market capitalism.  As much as it is probably the most-correct economic model for the world to use, there are time like this when I wonder how best to rationalize the utter lack of humanity that is part and parcel of the system.

Our boy is now at an age where we can make him smile or laugh pretty much on demand.  It’s quite a heart warming thing to experience…a baby laughing.

Speaking about babies laughing, I saw this clip on Youtube and was found it quite funny <huge understatement>

I’m so very tempted to spring for an iPhone.  But I hesitate simply because of the incremental cost it’ll bring to my monthly budget (the upfront $200-300 doesn’t help either).  I suppose $30 per month extra is manageable.  But the question I keep coming back to is: Is it worth it?  I know this: This is a terrific device, easy to use, high coolness-factor, gives me internet connectivity everywhere (that a cell phone does), it is a cell phone eliminating the need to carry multiple devices, it’s got great applications that can be useful, etc. etc.  But still…can I live without one?  I think the answer is yes, which has me hesitating on the purchase.  I wonder how long I can hold out…

I read this article in the NY Times and was moved to tears, especially about the part about how the infant survived.  I don’t know if any cause is worth this kind of suffering and desperation.  Perhaps yes…but when one hears about these incidents and I’m sure every war has tons of these stories, I have to wonder if…

…And feel extremely thankful and blessed for all of the things in my life that I often take for granted.

Is it just me or have television channels managed to conspire to show commercials at the exact same time?  Like a typical man, I unhesitatingly surf channels when the commercials come on…mostly to find something else that can fill the time before the show returns.  Lately, I’m finding that this is a lost cause because (most) every channel seems to be showing commercials at the same time!  So annoying!

1. A baby’s interest in an inanimate object is inversely proportional to its size.  
2. A baby’s interest in sleeping is inversely proportional to how tired he is.
3. Nothing fasinates a baby more on a human face than eye glasses
4. The intensity of a baby breaking wind is directly proportional to the number of people he is with.

This latest outbreak of Swine Flu makes me extremely nervous.  There have been 20 cases reported in the US already and they’re in the NY area, if I’m not mistaken.  That isn’t terribly far from where we are.

Since this is a virus, it’s not particularly treatable, so where does that leave us if the authorities can’t contain it?  I’m not sure, but it doesn’t sound like a pretty conclusion…

I’m a self-confessed workaholic who usually clocks 11-12 hour days at work on a regular basis.  Honestly, I think some of you will believe me when I say that I didn’t think that this would change much after marriage and family…much to my missus’s chagrin.  After the baby arrived and hit the 6 month mark, however, something’s changed.  When I walk in the door in the evening, my little squirt of a son (every day  without fail) reaches out both his hands and gives me the broadest and dare I say sweetest smile in the whole world.  And what I’m finding is that as the clock chugs past the 4pm mark, I’m already thinking about how I get get out of the office to be the recipient of that smile.  

Of course, now I’m all conflicted.  The workaholic in me is revolting against the father.  So far, the father is winning by a mile…