Wheeeeezeeeee

Wheezing and allergic Rhinitis are not new to me. 2011 saw me skip the allergy season, which was attributed to Bikram Yoga and the regularity with which I did the yoga practice.

This spring season there was a lot of travel and in spite of that did Yoga here and in Austin with reasonable (read that as > 50% average attendance on a daily basis) and there was no hay fever. There was the stomach infection which took me down by another 4 lbs in 10 days and made me weak enough to miss yoga for almost a 10 day stretch. That is behind and have been catching up to the routine.

Something is changed, not with me but with the environs. Why?

Last thursday night, had just gone to bed at 11 and was already deep asleep. Suddenly woke up close to midnight and found myself wheezing pretty badly. No sign of any other symptoms. Just an inability to breathe and the old familiar feeling of drowning in your own bed.

Came out and did the usual remedies and made it to work and couldn't last even half a day on Friday. All precautions went back in place. Scour the kitchen for any accidental introduction of foods I am allergic to, clean the house for dust, etc. etc. as well as some extensive steam inhalation, medication etc.

Friday night comes and I wheeze at 11PM. Go to the hot room on Saturday and felt some relief. The lungs were clear again temporarily and spent a few hours with the kids and visited a temple to offer prayers to thank god for getting this over with. That was shortlived as Saturday night the wheezing started at 9PM.

Today it is not yet 8PM and I am gasping for breath already!

Anyways, there will be visiting doctors and more precautions and this will be resovled sooner or later. But the one good thing from this post?

One of my co-workers saw my plight on Friday and told me "I have some Indian Herbal cough drops that really work like a charm. Have some!"

What he gave me was called Zam Zam and I have never heard of it before, but boy did it give me enough of a repreive to be able to drive back home.

Note the formulation, exactly what my grandma used to give me when I was a child with these symptoms and the "Ella Pugazhum Iraivanukke" (all praise be to god which was popularized by A. R. Rahman at the Oscars).

Whoever made this thing, a big thank you.

Now we wait for a better tomorrow.

Summer success

Jr. has been busy with a nintendo DS. In spite of our pushing her to do something else to occupy her time from a learning perspective she has been busy with the DS.

The only things she has done to make a pleading daddy happy are

Read the first Harry Potter book. She is halfway through the book and seems to enjoy it so far. How a kid who loved books till second grade suddenly became averse to books is beyond us. It is not like she reads iBooks and therefore is averse to paperbacks. She just doesn't like to pick up a book. Have been trying real hard to change that and hopefully Rowling will do the trick for us.

Play the Alto Sax with coaching!

She has improved a lot in the last month and has impressed most importantly, herself! She can see that she is improving and that keeps her going.

Hope is that she will keep going and learn the saxophone to an extent where she can play a geetham on the alto sax by Navarathri. At least that was the goal set for her by daddy.

Told her that we will play a duet with Guitar and Saxophone before the Golu season begins. The little one who is now pining to learn some instrument or other overnight has volunteered to video tape said duet.

Time will tell.. through this blog of course!

A weekend in Pictures

This weekend saw a lot of activity in spite of me being down Friday and Saturday. 

Everything that happened in and out of the house was a cheerful experience.

We did the Varalakshmi pooja dinner Friday and the whole house was full of people, standing room only at one point. It was great to see the smiling faces in huddled conversations and the kids running around gleefully (if there is such a word).

Then we attended a surprise birthday party for my friend who turned 40. Yes, this year is "no one escapes the big Four O" year for our batch. There are only 4 guys I know from our batch who are waiting to celebrate within the next few months. The cake.. Oh What a cake! We have seen a lot of unique cakes over the years but this cake takes the cake!

Came home for some rest and took my parents to Shoreline park so they could watch the geese, pelicans, etc. and get some sun. It was good to get some fresh air and sit on a park bench and get more grounded with the thought processes. Kind of like going into your hard drive and killing all those threads that are running in the background!

After a long time we skipped Yoga entirely on the weekend. The body needed a lot more water and rebalancing before being confident that there wont be any dizziness once in the room. Sometimes, got to give a break when a break is due!

This morning we went and attended a "Kalyana Utsavam" at a friends house. It is a function where they conduct a marriage ceremony for the god and goddess just like the real wedding ceremony for the bride and groom. It is kind of like the "wedding rehearsal" that people conduct in marriages here which gives a "what to expect when your kids get married" before the actual wedding. The priest did a good job of explaining what was being done in a step by step way, something that more priests need to do to set the context for today's generation so they appreciate the reasoning behind the customs.

My parents enjoyed it thoroughly because they don't get to attend outside functions during their visit here but in India they are going to some function or other on a weekly basis. For me, it was great attending a function after a long time where I was not the one doing the prayer! Sometimes it is good to be in the audience.

Then more rest after some heavy food and off we went to get haircuts, an activity that was postponed by the parents demand that it wait till all the functions were done..

Both the kids now sport short hair. A big help once school starts in a few weeks as we will be going crazy with the post swim class hair dry routine and the early morning "combing" ritual which will take an extra 5 minutes.

Now an eventful weekend comes to a close and we begin yet another busy week for everyone in the family!

Happy Monday, here we come!