Am posting the answer now...

In the comments to my previous post though - so that for those who want to give it another shot after the clarification below, the answer isn't given away straight up -

The clarification is for all those looking for the 'other third possible solution' is that the ONLY two choices are - allowing it to proceed on Track A towards 3 kids on the used track, OR diverting it to Track B towards the lone child on the unused track. You can't pick up the kids, warn them off, stop the train, blah blah blah. So don't be smarties, please! Just choose one of the two...

A Morbid Hypothetical Situation

...was described by our Boss as an opening to one of our all-day meetings earlier this week. I was quite fascinated by the way people reacted to the particular question that he posed and thought I'd check out how other people would answer.

The situation was described as thus:

- There are two train tracks - Track A and Track B.
- Track A, is a track that is in regular use, while Track B, is a track that is not in use.
- On Track A, 3 children are playing - while on Track B, one child is playing alone.
- A train is hurtling down Track A, and it's heading for the three kids.
- If you are in charge of the lever that switches the course of the train between Track A and Track B, and you therefore have only two choices, which one would you choose and why?

a. Let the train continue on Track A towards the 3 children OR
b. Divert the train to Track B towards the kid playing solo?

The idea here is to not think too much, and put down your instinctive response.

I'd be interested to know your first reaction, reasons why, and whether your answer changed as you wrote it in the comments section.

I will tell you the 'correct answer' after a while - let's say after 8-10 people submit their views?

That sounds fair to me

Parental Instincts

Mother's instinct....

I'm sitting, playing with Peanut on the bed. She's in a giggly mood, and is flopping all over the place. I turn to talk to Vijay, and see out of the corner of my eye that Peanut is doing a backward flop with full gusto.

I also notice simultaneously that my husband has foolishly left his laptop on the edge of the bed, which is where my baby's head is going to land in the next few milliseconds.

Time stands still for me, my heart skips a beat. Without thinking, my hand lashes out and thwacks the baby's head, deflecting her in the nick of time. She lands safely, her head narrowly missing the laptop, although her happy eight-toothed grin is wiped off her face, and startled by my intervention, she starts to cry loudly.

Father's instinct...

Vijay has so far been but a mute observer to this event, but now he leaps into action. But to my shock, instead of congratulating me on my quick action, he simply uses the opportunity to win some brownie points with the baby, immediately pouncing upon the wailing, confused child and saying...

'Oh my poor little one...Mama ne maara?...Dada ke paas aao...Dada nahin marega...'.

Whatever. He's just lucky he didn't get the laptop against his head.

February...

...really is my favourite month.

The weather in Delhi is beautiful. As I sit here and type, it's a sunny Saturday afternoon and there is a delightful breeze, coming in through the open door at my mom's place. The only thing missing today is Vijay's presence. As sucky as it is to have only two Saturdays off in a month, Vijay has it worse with only one Saturday off!

Anyway, so February is great. It's not just the weather. Many other little things, like the inevitable surprise party around my birthday ( I mean, let's face it - I know I'm getting too old for this stuff, but it's a fun tradition) ; our marriage anniversary ( has it really been six years?) and other assorted things that make it the most pleasant month of the year.

Coming back to the Saturday thing - I really have realized that Saturday is an incredibly important day, and not just to chill out- it's more to do with finishing off your chores and getting some peace of mind and some time to unwind. So the couple of weekends that I get which actually do have Saturdays off, are rather precious.

I took the opportunity to take Peanut off for a doctor's visit - and an immunization which I realized with some guilt, was two weeks overdue. This time round, she started crying as soon as she saw the doctor, clearly associating his presence with the inevitable jab in her thigh. I felt really bad for her, but had a series of questions to ask him. The exercise was pointless because I was distracted by her crying while asking, and so was he, while answering. Taking her outside of the room ( the K was with me) didn't help either because on weekends, nothing the K tries can distract Peanut's attention from me. Eventually, the doctor suggested we just get the injection over with and stop torturing Peanut, and I agreed. It was over in a flash, but her anger lasted a lot longer.

I remembered that right after she was born, the same doctor was trying to give me some instructions on her care, and I was a little distracted, and hoping that he would start addressing those instructions to Vijay instead. He chided me, asking 'Who is the primary caregiver?'. Naturally, this annoyed me and I pointed to Vijay, saying 'Him'. The doctor was not amused and neither was I. Anyway, 19 months later, here we were again - I've been thinking of finding a doctor closer to our place (and perhaps closer to our generation), but again, that's something I haven't got around to doing yet.

Vijay and I took Peanut to Nirula's a couple of days back - she loves the place, and associates it immediately with ice-cream, and walks around dripping Butterscotch crunch all over the place. She also loves the tiny chairs they have for kids and deposits herself on her favourite blue one very regally. We have a bit of an issue while trying to leave, though - largely, because she doesn't want to and has to be dragged out, kicking and screaming.

Ok, the weather really is too tempting to be sitting indoors and blogging. I'm going to grab myself an after-lunch piece of gur ( don't you just love gur? I do) and contemplate my existence on the sunny spot on the front steps.

Yes. I love February. And Saturdays.

Assorted...

Vijay: Your happy burday is coming up! What would you like, honey?
Y ( thinking hard): Well, I'm a simple person with simple tastes. I think all I want is you to take me to the zoo on Sunday.
Vijay: Whatttt?
Y: Why? What's wrong? It'll be really nice. Peanut can come too.
Vijay: Ummm....
Y: What is with you? Why can't we just go for a nice family outing on a Sunday? Why do you bother asking? I've been told the Delhi Zoo is quite nice.
Vijay (relieved) : Oh, ZOO! I thought you said 'Loo'...

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The fight for Peanut's affection has officially begun.

Over the last few days, Peanut has lost around ten percent of her cling-iness to me. She now exhibits a definite excitement about Vijay's return from office, and actually fusses over and hugs him - as opposed to her almost constant irritation with him over the previous two months or so.

She still prefers that I do most of her stuff for her, but I get at least a little bit of relief nowadays when she allows Vijay to occasionally do something.

Vijay stayed at home a day or so over the last couple of weeks, and before I knew it, he had sneakily taught her to say 'Dada' as a response to his query 'Peanut kiski beti hai?'. He did this by the simple means of saying it over and over himself until she started to do so, and then reinforcing it with loud claps and 'yaayyyys'.

So the last time I finished changing her nappy, after a great deal of difficulty -because she insisted on getting up and running away, teetering on the edge of the bed many times - he stood around watching from a distance, and finally asked her 'Peanut kiski beti hai?', and she automatically replied, almost before he finished his question 'Dada'.

Vijay clapped loudly, said 'Yayyy' and then cackled for a long while, summing it all up with a shot at me ' Honey...ghar tum banao...par nameplate mera...'

.......................................................................................................................

But who cares? Mostly, it's me and her, all the way. I created a mini-me!

Peanut's first Ice Cream

God, I love Nirula's. Seriously.

Blah blah blah...

My brother's wife, V is down from England, with their new little baby - two month old Nikki. We went over to see them last week, and Peanut's reaction to her was strange. She spent the first hour completely ignoring her - and then suddenly seemed to notice that she was not just another toy, but a real little person - the first littler person than her that she has closely encountered. She then kept touching her face (closely supervised by me), and then squealing extremely loudly right in the poor little one's ear. She also looked really, really huge compared to the baby.

My baby's the bigger one now. Wow!

V asked me a question later, saying 'So I read on your blog that you do yoga - do you really do it, or was that just a blog thing?'. I was a little taken aback and told her that I really do it - I thought of adding that not a single thing on my blog is untrue, but since she had asked the question very nonchalantly, probably isn't into blogs in general, and didn't mean anything by it, it seemed pointless.

But it did set me thinking. Nothing I write on my blog is a lie - at best, there may be some exaggeration to make a funny story funnier - but apart from that, there aren't any untruths of any sort.

However, and this must be true of all sorts of blogs, if not each and every blog - there are many things I choose not to write about, which if you did know might give you a very different idea of who I am and where I come from. Would that be lying by omission? No, that's pushing it, of course. You write what you write about, and you don't write what you don't want to write about. And what don't I write about?

* I don't write much about my younger days, especially school.
* I don't write about my father or how I feel about his passing.
* I don't write about my work, or the people there.
* I don't write much about my closer relationships, friends or family.
* I don't write about what I really feel about other blogs, and bloggers.
* I don't write anything about any social issues or events that affect me.
* And in case you think I write only about my baby - let me tell you I don't write one hundredth of the stuff that I could write. Or a millionth of what I feel.

So what do I write about? Geez, I better run over the last couple of hundred posts and figure it out. Suddenly, there doesn't seem to be anything worth saying. It all looks so frivolous!

Is this a phase? Or was the prolific blogging a phase?

Well?