My Attempt to Lose Weight - A Beginning

Off and on I have been talking about my weighty woes. In August 2009, I had delivered Arnav and during my pregnancy I had paid two hoots to the advice that that my weight might increase if I eat too much. I had on the contrary decided to enjoy this once in a life time phase and the free licence to eat anything & everything.

Fortunately for me, I had managed to gain only 13kgs which was quite decent and within limits. Post my delivery I was tied to the bed for 1.25 months and my sweet MIL took care of me and my house in that period. The food that I ate was always light as I was feeding my son at that time and thankfully my weight reduced a bit. After completing 3 months we went off to Chennai i.e. to my Mom’s place and that is where the trouble began. The last trip that I had made to Chennai was of a week and the longest that I had stayed with my parents after moving out for college was way back in the summer of 2002 when I was looking out for a job.

I am sure all of you can relate to me when I say that staying with your own parents has a magic which is irreplaceable. The magic of eating food cooked by your Mom is something which cannot be described in words. I stayed with my parents for almost 2 months and did just three things (besides taking care of Arnav) ate, slept & watched TV the result was such that I added some 4-5 kgs onto my frame and strangely I wasn’t worried about it because everyone around had been saying, ‘eat properly now because you are feeding and don’t worry about weight loss, once you join work you will automatically lose weight’.

Once I came back to Mumbai, I resumed office and expected the weight to disappear itself. Strangely nothing happened; the fat remained as it is. Months passed away and I joined a gym in September with a hope that I will finally lose weight. Unfortunately for me, I have never loved gym as I find it boring but despite my disinterest I was regular for 20 days and then I took one day off. That one day turned to 2 days, 3 days and then a month passed away. I was feeling guilty for being irregular but somehow my legs never took me there. It was in November end that I met my BFF who managed to throw me in the guilt pit. I decided that in a months’ time when I meet her for my birthday I would be slimmer. I resumed gym with a new determination and was regular for a month. Come January I again stopped going there and this time I was shameless, I didn’t even renew my membership. The gym manager was asking around for me because when they had opened the office gym during office hours I was the happiest person on this earth.

I didn’t go there and came up with an excuse, ‘I get bored of gym so I have decided not to waste money but I will do something else myself and lose weight’. What a nut case I was because I just thought but never acted. I did ABSOLUTELY nothing to lose weight, I didn’t control my diet; on the contrary I was on full on eating mode because I felt I am already fat what more do I have to lose, I should at least enjoy my life. As it is I will be losing weight tab sab chala jaayega.

Who was I kidding? The whole situation was getting scary, in the heart of my heart I knew that what I was doing was not right, that I was hurting myself in the process and should stop the relentless/ shameless piling on of weight. I was also realising that hiding behind ‘I was pregnant’ or ‘I am too much a foodie to diet’ were excuses which sounded lame to even my ears. I was waiting for a warning or rather jhatka which would shake me out of the reverie.

And it came around a fortnight back when the suit which I had taken recently (post the weight gain) felt a little tight around my waist. It was also quite visible that I was having trouble in getting up. If that wasn’t scary enough nothing else could be. And then there were random comments from people. I know a bunch of people whom I meet regularly at CCD and after he saw me after a month he made a random comment, ‘start walking & stop eating ice creams, thoda weight kam ho jaayega.’ Though I laughed out at that time but honestly I was ashamed.

These things plus a couple of more random incidents were trying to wake me but I knew one thing; gym is something that I was very difficult for me to pursue in the long term, I could always resume my aerobics class but that would mean leaving home 2 hours before my usual time and whenever I thought about it Arnav’s face would appear before me. The only alternative in front of me was diet control.

Thus on Monday morning I decided to call a cousin of mine who is a dietician by profession and is supposed to be very good at her work in fact she too has delivered a baby just a year before me so she kind of knew what I was going through. It took me some time to convince her that I was serious about weight loss (I am sure she must be getting panicked calls from people who want to lose weight but do nothing about it).

She promised to help me on one condition, that this plan would not be a one off thing for me, she expected me to make a commitment and be serious about it. I decided to take the plunge and thus began my Weight Control Program.

But me being me I decided that the way people have a Bachelors party before marriage, I too would have an eating party before I begin dieting. Yes, I am shameless that way. So that day I ended up stuffing myself so much that I was buried under guilt. In a way it was good because it increased my determination to beat the greedy foodie in me.

The challenges that lay ahead of me

• I am supposed to drink a glass of milk daily as apparently for my blood group milk reduces weight. You can read my views about Milk here. I hate milk and this is the biggest hurdle I crossed yesterday night. I hope to continue the determination.
• I have to say No to potatoes. Unfortunately I live on them. Surprisingly this is my fourth without them.
• I have to eat a fruit a day. Unfortunately I hate them. Surprisingly I have already 2 eaten apples in past 4 days.
• I am supposed to have dinner before 8:30 pm. I thought that was never possible but from last 2 days I eat as I feed Arnav.

Today it is the fourth day and I have been following the regime strictly and have realised that it is all in our minds. If we really wish we can change ourselves the only thing that we need is determination. I hope I manage to be strict with myself.

I have also decided to chronicle my weight loss through a diary. I have added a page on the blog and will try my best to update it daily.

Wish me luck and share your weight loss stories because that would encourage me.

Between the Headlines

Title:            Between the Headlines

Author:        Shweta Ganesh Kumar

Price:           INR 125/-

Publication: Good Times Book Pvt. Ltd.

Satyabhama Menon works for N.E.W.S, India’s premier new channel. After having worked at the backend, she was dying to be in front of the camera and to be in the thick of the news. When opportunity knocked in she readily moved to Bengaluru as reporter. Initially forced to do some inconsequential reports, Satya starts carving a place for herself in the office. She starts enjoying her job, that of bringing the truth in front of the nation when the changes begin to happen.

Her news channel decides to focus on CRIME which is the only story that sells. In the process they compromise the basic sanctity of journalism and that is when the unrest & frustration creeps in Satya.

Will she survive the crime wave or will she move out towards something else which might be her true calling?

Read the book to know more.

My Verdict

Written in flashback the novel traces the journey of Satya. The book gives us a rare insight towards how a news channel functions. The channel Vs reporter conscience has been captured quite well here and gives you an insight that though we all curse the reporter for showing us non news but the fact is that they are working under the dictates of their bosses for whom nothing matters beyond TRP & money. The book also captures the office politics quite well.

The book reminded me of Earning the Laundry Slips by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar, which was the story of a girl who joins HLL and tries to break through the male dominant sales market. A lovely read it was and the same can be said about this book. A well written book which keeps you glued all the time and as I said gives a rare glimpse of the insides of a greedy newsroom.

I loved the book for its simple yet gripping narrative and the innocence which is there in the whole proceeding making the book a worthy read. A light book but with a message that it is never too late to chase your dreams and I am sure most of us relate to that feeling.

My Rating 3.5/5

Reservation Via Tatkal - A Takal Solution Needed

Have you ever tried your hands in getting reservation through Tatkal? I have several times and my success rate is say 50% which if you compare to my hubby’s success rate which is 0%, is very good. This is the very reason that I am called in for trying Tatkal reservation whenever the need arises. I have always said this thing that getting a reservation in Tatkal is like getting a lottery because there are so many hurdles before you that it gets frustrating. Let me list them here

• If you log in before 8 AM and try reservation after the gates open up the site automatically logs you out. Never seen this happening with any other E Commerce site.
• If it isn’t your lucky day (which never is) it will not let you log in before 8:15 by when all the tickets would be taken.
• By any chance if you manage to log in it will not display the station codes.
• If by chance station codes are displayed it will get stuck at displaying date and dare you refresh you will be logged out, so restart the process.
• If your stars are shining it might even display the trains to you but it will get stuck in showing seat availability.
• Once I had managed to cross all the above hurdles and entered the details but you know got stuck where? ‘Verification Code’ which comes at the end of the form, no I am not kidding. It never displayed the verification code and then logged me out automatically because of time out. 

My Bhabhi & nieces were to leave for Chennai today morning from Ahmedabad. There is just one train between the two cities and their reservation was in waiting which finally crawled on to RAC but since the journey was too long and she was travelling with two little kids we decided to try our hands at Tatkal yesterday morning. My dad was trying in Chennai, I was trying in Mumbai and brother was trying at Jamnagar. As far as my luck was concerned all the above points mentioned happened with me i.e. I was unable to log in. My Dad called me at 8:05 AM (note the time as Tatkal opens at 8 AM) and told me to quit trying, I said why? It is just 5 mins into 8 and what he told me was shocking. Within 2 mins of the Tatkal gates opening the quota of 60 seats came down to 20 seats and by 8:05 tatkal went into waiting list, Mind boggling.

I was unable to login, my dad was unable to log in and I am sure that if 30 people would have been trying to access the site they would have also said “we are unable to log in” then where did the seats go? Did the brokers book the seat? Read on.

We then decided to wait till 7 pm (the train was today at 6:30 AM) before cancelling the RAC tickets and unfortunately nothing happened. We decided to cancel the plan and try for Tatkal for the coming days but since we were sure that it would be difficult to get the same through the efforts of us lesser mortals, I decided to use my old contacts in Ahmedabad and managed to speak to a broker and this conversation happened.

Me: Rasesh bhai, do you deal in railway tickets?

RB: Yes ma’am, for which location do you want the tickets?

Me: Ahemdabad to Chennai

RB: Not possible ma’am, I am sorry.

Me: not even in Tatkal?

RB: Ma’am there is some setting there, tickets vanish in 2 mins. I am really sorry for saying no but it is not possible. 

Disappointed and shocked I disconnected the call and called another contact in Gujarat. As per him his broker was reliable and had never disappointed him and he would get back to me by 10 next mornings. Though I was not very hopeful but I decided to be positive.

Back at bro’s home, my niece was crying and my Mom in Chennai was pretty disappointed because in last 20 days two of our close relatives have passed away and my Mom was pretty depressed about it. She had pinned her hopes on this visit and even I was expecting that the visit would cheer up everyone.

Today when I received the call that I was waiting for I got the expected response. My colleague was however very shocked, he informed me that the broker had immediately said no, he had told that getting Tatkal in Navjeevan express was impossible. My colleague was shocked because this guy had never disappointed him and had given him confirmed tickets in dire circumstances as well.

Post all this, if I say my blood is boiling then that won’t be wrong. The ba******s open the ticket booking four months before the travel date, now tell me how can people who are working and whose leaves are decided at the last moment book tickets 4 months in advance? Today only I randomly checked the availability (Ahmedabad to Chennai) for 19th August the result was waiting list. Bloody train is full 4 months beforehand?

What if somebody has to travel on an emergency? How does one get a ticket? Tatkal via home is like I said a lottery, if you go to a broker he charges anywhere between 200 to 500 Rupees for a ticket! We are as it is paying extra money for a Tatkal ticket and these buggers charge you so much over & above that.

You might say go to the counter and get a ticket? Well, my Dad did exactly that when they had to book a ticket from Delhi to Chennai. They were in Rishiskesh & fixed this up via a broker and will you believe that the queue for next day Tatkal started building up at 10 pm? My Dad’s fellow was 2nd in the queue and they just managed to get a ticket (their first preference was already into waiting list). In fact one broker had told me point blank that it is better to try through home because nowadays there is no guarantee to get a ticket at counter as well.

My friend tells me that once he had gone to his brokers office and worked on his PC and never faced any problem which we face when are trying from home. He tells me that his broker friend has 5 people working under him who just book 5 tickets in morning and earn 2500 rupees out of it. His servers & log in is different from ours and they never face trouble like we do.

What I fail to understand is that why is Indian Railways existing? To provide economic and speedy travel? But it does everything but that. In the name of easing things they have created so many hurdles in a common man’s path that getting a legitimate ticket is next to impossible. They have given us a fancy website but it never works when it needs to. They say that they have given us flexibility by opening reservations 4 months in advance which is creating more problems than solutions. They have supposedly increased the quota for Tatkal but those tickets when needed are not available. Who is gaining from all this?

• The quota which has been increased in tatkal has been taken out from general seats which means those tickets were available for normal price but are being sold at higher price.
• They charge extra money for tatkal.
• They do not cancel tatkal tickets which means if your seat is in waiting the money will go to the railway.
• They give you waiting in Tatkal which cannot be cancelled. Where does the money go? No prizes for guessing the answer.
• They do not extend the benefits usually attached to senior citizens & children in tatkal tickets so they are minting money there also.
• Earlier Tatkal was booked from source station to destination station which prevented the misuse of the facility. Now for long distance travels people do not get tickets because people book tatkal tickets for short distances and block the seats. 

And despite all this we still do not manage to get tickets, why? Because the system is not made for us, it is made for Railways to mint money.

And who will think about the common man? The common man who has every right to travel anywhere in the country but is unable to do so because the system doesn’t allow it.

I have seen so many people cribbing about the issue, I also see random news of some racket being caught but what happens after that? The problem still persists! Who will give us answers and solve the persistent issue?

What I need to know is how do we wake this incompetent sleeping system? This system which is so busy in making money that it forgets the purpose of its existence! Do you have any answers? I am sure no! But what I am sure is that you have experiences which I urge you to share here.

Of Paani Puri's, Potty & Cars!!!!

Last to last week we had some relatives visiting us and we decided to have chaat program, chaat bole to not the virtual one but the eatable version ;) and in preparation of that I made Aloo Tikki’s, Imli ki chutney, hare dhaniye ki chutney, hari matar, all the stuff for golgappa i.e. aloo, khatta paani and then other Knicks n knacks. When the aloo Tikki’s were sizzling on the tawa hubby came in with a packet of golgappa’s and I proudly showed the golden brown tikki’s to him expecting a word of appreciation. After the required ooh’s and aah’s I told him

Me: I think I should professionally start making & selling chaat.

Him: Really? With the way you make the stuff it won’t be a profitable business.

Me: As in?

Him: if you use good quality stuff you will not earn and you cannot sell it at the market price.

Me: Why not? See you got this paani puri packet for 50 bucks? It has 100 pcs and if I sell one plate for 10 bucks I will get the money back in 5 plates only.

By then I started thinking how I behave in front of a paani puri wallah after he is done with his 6 puris a plate and one free sukhi puri.

Bhaiya, ek aur sukhi puri dena na!

Aap bahut acchi banate ho ek aur dena na.

Arrey bhaiya bacche ke liye ek sukha golgappa dena na.

What I didn’t realise was that I was thinking aloud and hubby joined in

Arrey bhaiya bacche ke liye ek aur dena and then your son will say “uncle uncle” and he will give one more golgappa to him.

Shudders!!! It is crystal clear with customers like me around; this business is not for me. Please tell me I am not alone in this torture that we inflict on the poor chaatwallah’s and let me not even think that it is because this that they cut cost and start supplying susu puri’s.

On other front Arnav is getting naughtier day by day and has discovered the joys of digging his nose. I am partly to be blamed for that because when he wouldn’t let me touch his nose to clean it I started telling him that it has “kachra”  (dirt) in it let Mumma clean it and rest as they say is history. I have to keep telling him not to touch his nose but he outclassed himself when he dug something out of it, looked at it said “kachra” and tried putting it in MY mouth. I yelped and saved myself in the nick of the time.

You can say that my reaction was a little subdued but then that comes from the fact that by offering me his potty to eat, not once but twice, this lad has prepared me for worst. The first time he did it was when he was onto doing potty and suddenly in a matter of seconds he wiped a piece off the floor, tried putting it first in his mouth (I saved him by whisker) and then he tried offering it to me. I remember going ewww!!

The second time when he did it I was saved by a whisker and ended up screaming which in turn offended the young boy and he started crying. Ya, I had refused to eat something that he had offered so sweetly, bad mom I am. Now we have educated him that potty is something which is not supposed to be eaten. Joys of motherhood I tell you.

Did I tell you that he is still obsessed with Alibaugh? When I reach home in the evenings and ask him, “what did you do the whole day?” his response is fixed, “car & Alibaugh” which means he played with car & went to Alibaugh!

His vocabulary is increasing day by day and obsession with car is getting scary. When he is playing with them he forgets eating, sleeping & anything else. Will you believe that he makes them sleep also? He would upturn the car and pat it saying “ninna, ninna”. In an effort to make him sit and do potty I started keeping the cars in a vertical position and told him, ‘see even cars sit and do potty’. So now his cars basically go brrrr!, then they go to sleep and in between do potty as well ;-) such human cars we have!

Car reminds me, that day when we had gone to big bazaar there were this set of small cars on display right in front of the lift so that kids do not miss them. As soon as my brat saw them he grabbed a set. Hubby was against buying it because he had already broken one set which his naani had brought but then we finally decided to buy it for him because they were reasonable priced (joys of marketing!). The bugger wouldn’t leave the set he had in his hands & was even trying to extract one car out of it. While hubby was handling him I was standing in the queue to get our stuff billed (cannot tell you which was a tougher) and when our turn came hubby got another set of car for billing because we knew that if we took the one with which he was playing he would scream and crate a scene. No we cannot control him and take the easy way out, bad smart parents we are!

Post the billing we started moving towards the elevator when I saw a girl sitting in a trolley and crying at the top her voice, her mother pointed towards me & Arnav (who was busy playing with his cars) and said “see that bhaiya, he is such a good boy is he crying?”

I laughed out loud and said to her, ‘wait & watch’ and with that I took away the car set that he had in his hands (remember the one we had bought was packed in our stuff?) and bang on he started crying ‘Car! Car! Anaao ki car’ it was after much coaxing that he decided to see the other set that we were offering to him.

Earlier when I used to see kids crying over games in a mall I used to feel can the parents not control their kids? Now I know better!

Such is life, it teaches you with experience and tells you repeatedly, don’t judge others before you really know what they are actually going through. And not to forget you reap what you sow!!! So very true specially in context with parenthood.