For you my baby

The minute I heard this song, I knew I wanted to share this with you. 
There are so many things I want to show you, share with you and teach you. I may not be the best teacher; my experiences might be limited; I might stumble along the way but I promise I will give you the best I can.

Its who you are

It's not the price
It's not the game
It's not the score
It's not the fame
Whatever road looks way too far
It's not what you have
It's who you are

It's not how fast
It's not how far
It's not of cheers
It's who you are

In darkest night
You make your sun
You choose your race
And then you run

It's never the glory
It's never the score
It's not about seeing about who's less and who's more
Cuz when you find out how fast and how far
You'll know it's not how much you have
It's who you are

You lose the moon
Then be a star
It's not too soon
Be who you are
Whatever road looks way too far
It's not what you have
It's who you are

It's never the glory
It's never the score
It's not seeing about seeing
Who's less and who's more
Cuz when you find out how fast and how far
You'll know it's not how much you have
It's who you are

When you have found
How fast you can run
When you have found
Your place in the sun,
It won't be just you that you'll find
Has made the run and the climb
It's everyone

It's never the glory
It's never the score
It's not seeing about seeing
Who's less and who's more
Cuz when you find out how fast and how far
you'll know it's not how much you have
It's who you are
It's who you are

Learning to bend and not to break
Living to give more than you take
Dying to live
Living to try
Feet on the ground
Dreams in the sky

It's never how much you have
It's who you are
 

The woes of Insurance and the price we pay for basic health coverage

Like many other countries, both developed and developing, having access to good medical care is very important in US of A. But as a developed country, no less than the numero uno in Super Powers, we are still lacking in our health care choices. The best health care plans are offered through group insurance packages available as the employee of an established company. The better the company, the better the choices and the coverage. For people like Sathiq and I, who have chosen to be self-employed consultants, the choices are very very limited and very very pricey.

 We are still covered under COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act), which grants us the right to be covered under the group health benefits from Sathiq's last full time employer for a period of 18 months. Thanks to COBRA, we can still avail of the same benefits that we had under our previous plan at the elevated price of 102 percent of the cost to the plan. Which otherwise would have been fully covered by the employer for Sathiq and partially covered for me as his spouse. And trust me this expense stands second only to rent (and we all know about CA rents especially in Silicon Valley), in our list of monthly expenses.

 Now another, interesting factor, is pregnancy is considered a "pre-existing condition (?) " if you were "diagnosed" to be pregnant when you contemplate switching your insurance plans. So while being covered under COBRA and you have been offered a much better and maybe cheaper plan, please hold back if you "suffer" from pregnancy as your "condition" will not be covered. In our case, our COBRA will be expiring on Jan 1, 2012. While we are still waiting for Sathiq's full-time offer to come through, I called up the member services to find out my options. The rather nice lady (Cathy), who answered my call gave me 2 options:

1. I can switch to CAL-COBRA - which is a CA specific law which allows us to continue our COBRA benefits for another 18 months (Yay CA!)
OR
2. I can pray and hope that our baby is born in Dec (Jan 1st happens to be our due date as well. I can see that baby already has a sense of humor and will keep us on our toes)

And trust me CA people have a good sense of humor as well. Nice talking to you, Cathy :)

The number 4

Being a friendly, talkative and out going person by nature I have always been blessed with good company over the years. Best friends, good friends, bosom pals, confidantes, good-time buddies..well the list of labels is long. Some of the best times of my life have been spent in the company of my friends, well i guess that is not very uncommon :)

One interesting fact that strikes me when I look back over the years is the number 4. Well thats is my lucky number (ya i know big superstitious me...i have lucky numbers, lucky days, lucky dresses and even lucky poses to sleep/ wake up in). Ok I m swerving off the topic here...back to number 4. Well in the case of my friends too I strike lucky again with 4.

In school, I had a girl's gang of friends and a boy's gang of friends. And you guessed it, there were 4 of us. Siji, Nandi(tha), Remya n I and then Asim, Abu, Sudheesh and I. Eventhough the boys n girls spend time together, we were still 2 gangs. Siji and Asim are my best-est friends from the 2 gangs respectively. And like they say, the friendships you form when you are young are for a lifetime. I always believe this is because these friendships are formed when you are innocent and you be friends just for the simple fact that you like somebody. The way I can talk and be myself with these people beats anybody else.

Not so lucky in college though. And I blame it on the fact that except for the first year classes, all the others had benches which could only fit 3 people. No you couldnt squeeze 4 thin people in it. Trust me for I would have tried. All the tiffs and misunderstandings were cleared up over the years but we ended up being friends in silos. Well that is life and we just savor the good times, i guess.

The next stage was ofcourse career. I will skip over the Pune period and come straight to Trivandrum Infy. Oooh the feeling of earning and not having to worry about another test during the training was absolute bliss! Let me tell you, the time at Trinfy was one of the best times of my life. There again the number 4 - Kalyani, Keerthi, Divya and me. Oh the fun we had. We formed Mahila Samajam, the perpetrator of all fun and frolic in the otherwise tame DC. The games we organized, the long tea breaks, the longer lunch sessions, the fashion shows, the cake cuttings and masalas. And in the end transitioning to the new beginings in our lives...seeing each of us through wedding proposals, the reassurements, the dress fittings, the "bachelorette" nights, and finally ending up on the wedding albums, tired, happy and beaming. (Please note that the absence of the word "work" in this section has been intentional for the simple lack of it)

And now back to the future or rather present. Marriage for me like anybody else brought with it a lot of changes. The most significant one was the change of "Country of Permanent Residence". Moving half a world away from your family n friends was not easy. Especially considering the fact that I ended up jobless, car-less and activity-less in the process. Well things picked up when finally I got licensed to "work". Back to having a life of my own. Inspite of the challenges of trying out a new career and in a very different work setting, it was a fun time. The best thing I got out of it - Amrita, Pratibha and Jenny! Oh the fun times we had and the skills we developed. And the sheer drama of the consulting business - I refrain myself from jotting down some interesting incidents as I have no intention of being involved in any legal reprimands.

We literally saw each of us out of there to higher rungs of life...sought after careers, motherhood and the trials that come with it and plans of a better life. And still even after all this time, we still regale ourselves with "do u remember when.." or "that time when.." or "when the toilet stopped flushing..." much to our spouses' disdain. Though it is rare when 4 of us get to spend time together again, there are so many good memories to bind us all together. Amrita is the one to listen to my woes and pacify me and see me through my troubles and still making it all seem fun and bearable. Pratibha is the one who makes me forget what it is that I was worried about as she takes my mind off that with something much more interesting. And Jenny is the one who prompts me forward to taking the next big step with that simple question...Why not? and her signature statement "just finish it off".

I remember a birthday card I once received which said,

"We are best friends not because we like the same things but because we like each other despite our different likes"