She is usually very fond of doing swing. But, I used to push her on the jhula.

After dinner, 2 days back, she wanted to goto park to enjoy her swing ride. It was already around 9:30, and I wanted to go back home. I asked her to go back home. But, as usual, she denied.

I started moving towards home, and asking her to leave. Then, what I saw was something amazing. She started doing it by herself. And, she was enjoying much. She shouted to show us that she is doing it by herself. We could not ask her after seeing that.

And, she was doing pretty well, so fluent. 

I loved being parent in noticing these minor developments in kids.

Bhavika Started Doing Swing Jhula by her Own - #firsttime

Today is mom's birthday. I've gifted her a new mobile phone. Her every phone was given by me :)

It looked good. I got a good deal on flipkart.

Today Mom's Birthday - Gifted Mobile

Life was going so monotonous. I thought of meeting friends. Its hard to get everybody on time. But, luckily by calling few times, everybody decided to meet in Noida.

It was so good to see all of them: Gaurav Verma, Nikhil Murria, Ashish Sharma

Ashish was at his best. He is always like that. He is the CEO (Chief Entertainment Officer).

We talked a lot about college life, current life, we talked about working on some idea. We drank a lot of beer. Verma told them about my salary, they were happy and surprised. I paid the bill of around 9K.

It was really so good to see all of them. I felt like I was so happy after a long time. My cheeks were hurting, by continuously smiling.

Nikhil and Ashish talked about Bhola. haha, cant write about it.

We were there for a good 5-6 hours. We laughed, and we shared our lives. We forgot to share our personal lives and personal problems with anyone. And, with heavy heart, we left from there.

Old Friends Meet After Long-long time - Awesome Time

As my age is increasing, I'm realizing the value of an outstation trip. It refreshes you completely, and relaxes your mind.

This year, I was trying to go somewhere. But, I was not sure where!

In my office, lot of people were going for vacations, by taking around 10 days leaves. I was like, is it me only working? I also have a life. That was the trigger point. I also sent email about my leaves. I made my plans later. 

Few months back, I talked to my cousin brother Raman. I casually told him that let me know once you plan your trip. I will also go. He actually reminded me and asked me to come with him. He gave few options like Leh Ladakh, Coorg, Sikkim etc. I talked to Kanika, she was not interested in going with him. She is always like this. We always wanted to go with some other family, when other family gets ready, she finds some or other issues. They are not of our age, their kids are not of our kid's age. I'm not comfortable talking to them, bla bla...

I was like, ok, you make the plan. I told her the same. That, its always good to go with some other family, and they are our relative. Come on. I told Raman bhaiya NO, with some excuse.

Few days later, when our plan was not taking shape. I forcefully made my plan with Raman bhaiya, convinced Kanika. And, our planning started.

Raman bhaiya told me straight that I spend full. He is a rich business man, self made man. I also had my budget. But, I thought, lets do it. I was ready to match their expenses.

I made all the planning. This time, Kanika did not help me a single bit.

I booked the resorts, booked the flight. Our booking was just 4-5 days before.

Our flight was on 22nd June 2022, where we all were going on same day, same flight. But, I extended my trip a bit. Raman bhaiya was coming back on 26th June, I was coming on 28th June. It was quite a long trip.

The plan was to spend 3 days in Coorg, and 3 days in Ooty. But, I booked resort in Coorg only. I thought of plan later for rest of the days.

Due to heavy bookings, we could book only 2 days resort. I could find another day in the same resort. So, I booked that. Raman bhaiya told me that he will spend rest of the days in Coorg, relaxing in some good resort. We spent roughly 1.5 hours searching for their resort online. Finally, they booked a really expensive resort. 

Coorg Wilderness, with around 1.10L for 2 days only. He thought a bit, but then he said, its OK.

I booked the initial transfer taxi as well.

Daksh, Bhavika were excited. It was Bhavika's first flight. She was hugging me tightly each time, I tell her that we are going in an aeroplane.

And, here we go. Its 22nd June 2022. I booked a taxi for airport through some local vendor, it came on time. We had 3 checkin bags, 2 handbags. I also took one small bag for printouts, vouchers , IDs etc.

6:35 AM was the time, we left home. I parked all of our bikes inside our house last night. We had 3 of them now :)

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Trip to Coorg - Scotland of India - June 2022

In continuation with our Trip Starts 2022 

We started at 6:35 in taxi for Delhi airport, I called Raman bhaiya as wakeup call at 4:45 AM.

We met in airport, it was a good day. We did check-in. Daksh did some vomit, it started her vomit journey as well :)

I saw Raman bhaiya with his long selfie stick. He did click a lot of pictures, all with his selfie stick. We did check-in together. He gave me cash of 1L, as I did all the bookings, it was around half the payment.

Trip to Coorg 2022 - Day-1

Since long, I was looking for a bike (cycle). Yesterday I finally bought one. The "Giant Escape 2".

I went through Uber Taxi to the shop, as I was super clear to buy one that day. I had confirmed from the shop-keeper that he had the bike.

I had finalized Toronto H30 to buy. But, I changed my mind after going there and during the test ride. I found Giant Escape the best. Toronto was no-where close to it. The bike gave real feeling.

Firefox Rapide 21s (I was in love with this, if this could had disk breaks, I would buy it)

Toronto H30 was costing me 30K, and Giant Escape-2 at 50K. I was fully prepared with Toronto H30. I negotiated a lot with him, generally, I do not do this. But, I did my best. The good thing is that the shopkeeper gave a 12% discount on that bike, so it cost 50K after the discount. Nobody could get any discount online. I thought, sometimes you have to treat yourself as well. As it was very costly bike. After all, it is just a cycle.

Then, I gave him my American Express card. And, he refused to take it. I was very irritated as I confirmed this before coming to his shop. This wasted around 1 hour. As, he tried to generate an online link, but no way. I had another card, but I wanted to pay through this only.

In the meantime, there was an actress present in the shop, Gul Panag. I was thinking of taking a pic with her, but couldn't gather the courage. I had to go to other shops as well. So, I asked the shopkeeper to prepare the bike, as I came. I was standing very near to her, opened my camera and thinking of asking her for a pic. But, she started moving to her car. I smiled and moved outside of the shop.

I came back after around 30 minutes and found her standing there. I went straight to her and asked for a pic, she obliged with a smile. She was really pretty and tall.

Finally, the shopkeeper said you can pay to other shop of theirs, but that is in Sector-18. So, they sent their one of guy with me. I was riding on that new bike and he was also in his bike. After reaching there, he also didn't had machine for American Express card. I was so pissed off. I wasted other 30 minutes there. Finally, I didn't want to loose that bike, I paid through Citi card.

There is a secret! I paid 40K through Citi card, as it is linked to Kanika's name. I didn't want to tell her the real cost of the bike, she would be very angry on me on buying a 50K cycle. I paid rest with my UPI.

I did ride for almost 15 KM to home. As I ride the bike on highway. I felt so so good. The bike is a beast. It went so smooth, and its gear system was too good. On top speed, I was feeling like I was riding a real bike. It was so fast. I can't describe the feeling. I did overtake two cars in between :)

Daksh was very happy seeing the bike. He is generally very happy seeing new stuff. And, that day he asked for my bike. He was super excited to ride my old MTB bike. So, we had three bikes now. My two bikes, and one Daksh's.

Finally Purchased new Bike - Giant Escape 2

My parents are here for few days, and my cousin called my father to visit them. My father agreed. I was kind of hesitant to go there, its been long since they have visited my house. I agree, that I lack the skill to invite people nicely, but I do asked them many times to visit us. But, everytime they say they are busy. 

But, I thought lets go. We decided to go there on Saturday at 6 PM. Its around 20 km long, but it takes around 1 hour to reach there due to busy road. We reached there at 7:15 PM. We were greeted by Romy B, the elder cousin.

They recently re-built their house from scratch. Since the time we reached their house. Romy B started a show-off. For every little piece fitted, he tells the price tag without we asking for it. I was smiling little, and trying to hide my smile.

We did not even entered their house, from far away. See that light, very good light, costing X Rs. 

In front of the gate, look at our gate, I have purchased it from XZY place, and found for X Rs.

See these tiles, they are XYZ material, costing this much. We entered the house. Look at the lights, look at this, look at that. Bla-bla. 

But, I msut say that he was showing some ego or something like that. He was just showing-off his house. And, was happy. So, I was happy too. Sometimes, people show-off but their actions let others feel down. But, he was not doing that.

Here comes tea time. He started bragging about the stuffs. "Haldiram bhi kya kya banata hai". I mean, he was indirectly telling me that he brought things from Haldiram.

His bed mattress cost around 90k Rs. I was like, OMG.

Infact, their house was looking awesome. There was too much light, and less space. He spent around 1 Cr in that house. I think, he must have spent much more than that.

They purchased everything new. Their house area was very very less. They built 4 floors, each with same design.

Anyway, we enjoyed that short stay. Everybody behaved very nicely. Kids also enjoyed. Kids were playing nicely. I was thinking, Riya/Vasu never behaved like that. Ashu B came late. 

It was 10:30 PM. I asked Kanika that its late. But, I didn't want to go. Infact, we left from there at 11:30 PM.

We went to market, had kulfi. The market was a good one.

I asked them, since how many years, I'm in Noida. Its 15 years. How many times, you visited me. Not even once. Once they visited in Daksh's B'day in 2012. Still 10 years.

I told them in funny way that I will come here again only when you come to my place.

Overall, it was a very beautiful outing. A good time-pass. Leaving parents there was not something felt good. Kids were also feeling sad.

A visit to Romy B

After long time(due to Covid lockdown), I started going to office.

Kanika made some Aloo-Poori in lunch. Kanika told me that Daksh asked curiously, Papa will not eat this? He showed his concern towards me.

I really liked it. Although, its a small thing. But, small things matters a lot! It made my day.

Little things matters - When Daksh asked Papa will not eat it?

This year 2022, we have to get her admission finally to a school. As, she is turning 4 this year, and this is high time. Daksh is also studying in the same school.

The disadvantage in her case was that she has never went to some play-school. Due to Covid times, the schools were closed for full 2 years. We recently get her admitted to an online play-school footprints. Thanks to her mother, brother and youtube. She knew many things. She speaks english well. Sometimes, I even surprised how well she composed her sentences.

Let me tell you the story of her admission:

Bhavika is very very shy kid. Recently, I visited my maternal home. We stayed there for 5 days. But, she did not speak a single word to my brothers/bhabhi etc. Even, we did not get a chance to hear her clear voice. She spoke so slow there. Due to covid times as well, she never visited any physical school or any neighbours or parks. So, she has negligible social presence.

We filled her admission form online, and she got a call almost immediately for an interaction.

It was a google meet call. Where teacher asked so many things like drawing, name of animals, etc and etc. She responded so well. Maa'm gave a clean chit.

Second Interaction with the Principal Maam

So, first interaction was not enough. We had a second call and this time we parents, also had to sit with her. It was a call on mobile. Bhavika was excited. But, when the time came for her to speak. She did not speak a single word. The problem was that the principal madam was not speaking well according to kids. And, Bhavika got scared. I was so pissed-off with Bhavika that she did not speak anything. I tried to cover up for her. But her principal maam, said that there will be another round of interaction in school.

We were kind of angry to school that how many rounds you want from a 3 year old kid!

So, I took 2 hours off from office and we went to school. This time, we we made a plan. We took Daksh with us. And, I asked Daksh to let her engage in some activity and make her speak. We tried some combinations of tricks that Bhavika loves. 

Anyway, we reached school. There was rush of parents. Our turn came up fast. We all went in a room with a senior madam. She was very sweet, and the way she interacted with her was so cool. But, Bhavika was shy as usual. But, this time she was replying her. She learned some rhymes. But she did not sing that after so many requests. She interacted with Daksh as well. As he is from the same school. So, it was an advantage with us. She opened up an animal book, and asked names of many animals. Bhavika responded pretty well. She answered with the names which I was not even aware of, like Star-Fish, Crab :)

Anyway, she gave us a hint that its all ok. Her coordinator maam, Ritu told us to go back as principal madam was having a meeting. And, she straight away gave us the amount that we need to deposit if principal maam agrees. She said, 99.99% is done, but wait for principal maam.

We were sured of the admission. We had a Pizza Party that night. Daksh enjoyed it.

I got a call today (22 Feb 2022) that her admission is confirmed, and deposit the fee. She gave us a discount of 20% in the admission fee. 10% for sibling and 10% as girl child.

We had to deposit total of 119,500 Rs which includes one quarter fee. Its pretty expensive. I hate this about Noida.

But, I was very happy. Bhavika cleared her life's first exam. And, she joined the club of students.

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Bhavika finally got admission to Gyanshree School - Not an easy one!

Hitesh had to come to greater noida for a wedding event of his friend. He planned to meet in greater noida, with Ayush. I had no car, as Kanika took it her home. I took an Uber, reached there at Pari chowk. While waiting at Pari chowk, it reminded me of my old days, when I used to wait for bus in a crowded place. Now, the time has changed. Its a luxury, lets appreciate it. 

We went to some boring mall, and we had to goto Venice mall. We went there, and kept on talking about shitty things. When Hitesh and I talk, our direction move towards startups/life. I tried a lot not to talk about these things. But, when we talk, our direction goes there automatically.

Ayush must be thinking, what is wrong with these guys. Overall, it was a good time. 

We took some Nawabi chai from a small cafe: "Chai Le lo". And, the tea was really awesome, I forgot to take the pic. In lunch, we had chur-chur naan.