Adsense

after turning on the ads on the side (for more than two months) happened to go check that account.

Yippppeee...

have made a whopping 7300 bucks!

No, just kidding.

Actually made 73 cents in two months.

When I told my MIL that there was enough money to buy balli mittai for one kid, she said "how come I don't see any ads?". Then we compared it on our laptops and she was right. My laptop shows the ads and her laptop didn't.

Then we figured out that the ads show up only on Firefox and you don't see them if you use Internet explorer as the browser. My MIL, who is very devoted to her Microsoft employee son, is loyal to the explorer. Me being the paranoid techie, switched to firefox after many friends told me it is safer.

The lack of making the 10000 dollar mark.. err. 1$ mark has been blamed on IE.

To all those people who said "indha blog wog ellam oru ana paisavukku prayojanam unda?" (Is this blog wog even worth an ana paisa?).....

Okay, first we need to tell you what an ana-paisa is. One "ana" which used to be the old Indian minor currency denomination is 6.25 paise in today's terms. (one rupee was 16 anas and is now 100 paise).

If you use the conversion, one dollar is 47.66 rupees (today's rate). One rupee is 16 anas. So 1 ana is 0.13 cents. If I made 73 cents, it is 556 anas!

There, take that you nay sayers!

ps. The ads are consistantly irrelevant since they were turned on. The topic of the post and the ads seem to have no connection. Really wanted to see the algorithm at work. That is the real reason for turning on adsense. Fond hopes that a photoblog for canon and HDR would turn up ads for really popular software that fits the context. Nope, instead we get ads for home loans. This seems to be highly over rated!

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From one thread to another..

Ones commitment to learning may be directly measured by ones receding hairline and loss of hair density.

You live, you learn. You learn more, you live less?

There has been a lot of learning on the personal and professional front in the last year. At least that is the annual Avani-avittam report!

Granted the regular sandhyavandanam is restricted to twice a month, plus some days when I feel like it and it is done in the bathroom for the most part, but the avani-avittam thread changing is always done.

Reminds you of good things from the past, and somehow deep down tells you that as long as you keep the learning process alive, all will be well. This ceremony always brings about mixed feelings. It becomes a once a year atonement event, but one has to look past feeling bad for not doing rituals and prayers everyday and go with "work is worship" and "worship is just more worship"!

Vedic learning is not going to feed the kids and it is a given that the concepts have to be fit to context.

My only take on the "being a brahmin" part is somehow we were taught that "knowledge is power". It is very much possible that this is an over simplified myopic filtered view of the caste system scaling down to affect me as to who I am....and this is not the first time this is being said in this blog. At least that view has remained consistent over four plus years of blogging..

In my understanding of 7th grade history of India, we were taught that there were four classes of people who had different interpretations of power and their roles in the world. They were valued in society for their quest for

a. knowledge
b. power, control, territory
c. money and all things material
d. a daily paycheck

Roughly translated for today's urbanite, you would aspire to be CTO, CEO, CFO or a dude doing the actual execution of work... today you can beat the system and be anything you want to be, as long as you don't get stereotyped!

Considering my parents were not well to do and the only thing they pushed me to do was to get grades and their biggest achievement (prior to their getting me married to their top seed pick aka San) was performing our Upanayanam ceremony in a grand way, the choice was very clear. Study and you will get somewhere in life and be valued for something.

That has been sent into deep permanent memory somewhere. So this year the commitment to learning has been extended by another year.

As usual, some pictures..

The little one was slightly upset that there was no "bell ringing" involved in today's occasion, but was consoled once she saw the good eats.

It was just daddy doing prayers and everyone getting to eat vadai, paayasam and sweet poli.

The paayasam was very very yummy and this post ends on that note..and we go eat some more paayasam.

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Roles and Responsibilities

Was rushing to the checkout counter at Costco with the little one sitting on the cart and Jr. standing on it.

As we wheeled past the last aisle with all the medicines a question from Jr.

Jr. : daddy, are you going to buy Bengay?

Me : why?

Jr. : you buy Bengay for your mommy and daddy?!

Me : Not now. Looking for something else. When you grow up, will you buy Bengay for your daddy?

Jr. : (doesn't even think and says) No

Me : Why not?

Jr. : you are buying Bengay for paati because you are a boy. Only boys have to take care of their parents!

Me : do I treat you differently because you are a girl. I treat you the same way parents treat their boys, right? Should Amma and appa go have a boy? We have the two of you and you are our kids....(by now zapped by the realization that they have bad concepts in their head a little too early)

Jr. : okay daddy. I will buy you Bengay when you become old.

The little one watched this conversation with amusement..

Later we are at home eating Upma and the little one suddenly exclaims "when I grow old, I am going to make Upma for my daadu!"

Me :will you feed me Upma every day for tiffen? You know I like it

LO : but you will be far away though!

Me :!!!!!! (oru mudivoda dhan paa irukkanga)

Later San and me were wondering where this came from. Obviously their default world has grown up children leaving their parents and going away and grandparents only visit..

For now:

1. Bengay is a maybe
2. Upma is ruled out

god knows what else we have in store for us.. or should I say, what if any we have in store for us?

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