Microsoft Office Outlook Connector

I installed Microsoft Office Outlook Connector. Now, I can use Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007(the client I use for my office emails) to access and manage my Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail account, including e-mail messages and contacts for free. I have registered my hotmail email account with IRCTC and CitiBank - it makes it so easy to catchup on emails now.

Looking forward to the Germany V/s Turkey Semi-finals match of Euro 2008 UEFA. I loved this Tournament browser developed by the euro2008 website.

Wisdom Lost

Finally had my long due wisdom tooth extraction - Dr. Deepali Kenkere performed a surgery on my right wisdom tooth. The surgery went ok - the pain after the effect of local anaesthesia had subsided was real bad. Deepa joked that I looked like a pregnant lady having labour pains. I'm sure, her labour pains must have been even worse.

I'm on Divon Plus paracetamol tablets.

School search

We just got back home from a round of Sunday afternoon shopping at FabIndia and Pranav had dozed off. So, I decided to get online and my search for a school for Pranav's education offically kicked off today. A simple google search led me to this interesting site: Bangalore Schools.

Some of the prominent ones that I listed out for followup are:

Bishop Cotton Boys School
Bethany
Baldwin Boys High School
Ryan International
HAL Public School
National Public School
New Horizon Public School
The International School, Bangalore
Inventure Academy
GreenWood High
Indus International
Freedom International
Canadian International School
Mallya Aditi International School

Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme

Read this article in the newspaper today that Navjyot Sidhu tops MPLADS (Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) funds usage. He spent 5.35 crore, an impressive 90% of the Rs. 6 Crore fund allocated to each MP. Every year, two installments of 50 Lakhs are made.

A quick check on what Prahalad Joshi (MP from Dharwad North) has used shows he has three more installments left.



The Regional Passport Office went bilingual - it is now available in Kannada and English

wisdom tooth

Last Friday, my wisdom tooth revolted like no one ever before did and a visit to Dr. Kenkere, my dentist was envitable. Monday, I had to work from home so that I could keep the appointment. An X-ray revealed that both of my Wisdom teeth were positioned vertically and were pushing the adjacent tooth. He put me on Tinimox and a pain killer : ?????. The damage was already done - my last visit to my dentist and I had been warned to get the extraction of the wisdom tooth done as soon as possible - alas, I had to shell out 3000 INR for the root canal of this adjacent tooth - I call it tooth31. Now, I have an appointment for a surgical tooth extraction next week.
During the root canal treatment, I was wondering if there is any naming convention followed by the Dentist community to refer to each tooth - all that I know is that we have 32 teeth.

Some questions that came up and I ought to explore :
What is a wisdom tooth?
What is root-canal treatement?

Thaaankyoou papa

Pranav had been pestering mamma (Deepa) to take him to the Gudi (Temple). So, we stepped out of the house and visited Sri Venkateshwara temple at J P Nagar, Phase 2. It was disappointing since the temple had no bells for Pranav to ring. The good bit - on our way back, Pranav uttered, "Thaaankyoou papa". I was thrilled.

He has been talking a lot lately. Wish we could record his attempts to speak for posterity.

Here's a list of words he has learnt:

Manomi = Mango
Kakaa = "I need to go to the Potty"

Pranav Plucks Jamuns

Sheeresh and Divya were plucking Jamuns while Pranav watched excitedly shouting "Daadaa" & "Akka". Deepa made the most of this "attraction" to feed him tuppa anna. Then, this country maid came by selling nerle (Jamuns called in Kannada) in a wicker basket. She was selling jamuns for 5 Rupees per chitte (which is a small can). Dad bargained and she sold two chitte for 10 Rupees. Naturally, the kids weren't interested in the nerle purchased, but the ones they were plucking on their own; reminded me of my childhood when we plucked nerle, mangoes, peru and another fruit which I can't remember now (it was bean shaped and spiral and you need to peel of the outer green layer and eat the inner white core).

Later in the evening, we took an auto to visit akla ajji - badi ajji (great grandma) at Jamkhandi Compound. We met baby Aryan - Meera Maushi's grandson.

Pranav's First Bus Ride

Today evening, Pranav had his first bus ride - that too with Grandpa. It was a bus ride from University Cross to Dharwad bus stand and he freaked out.
We (me, Deepa and Dad) decided to catch an auto into town to get the repaired Philips mixie and buy some vegetables & fruits. As we neared the auto stand, a bus glided in and Dad commanded that we hop into it - so it was unplanned and I shall cherish it. I asked Deepa to preserve the bus ticket so that we can show it to him when he grows up.

69 Delimited Assembly Constituencies of Karnataka

Last fortnight, I voted for the Karnataka Assembly elections 2008. The assembly constituencies have been redrawn after delimitation. Karnataka is the first state to hold the elections as per Delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies by the Delimitation Commission of India. I need to check and confirm if my name is listed in the Electoral rolls for Bangalore at the CEO, Karnataka website.

The Eight districts: Bidar, Gulbarga, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Belgaum, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri went to polls in the Phase III on 22nd May, 2008.

1-18: Belgaum District
Nippani, Chikkodi-Sadalga
Athani, Kagwad,
Kudachi (SC),
Raybag (SC),
Hukkeri,
Arabhavi,
Gokak,
Yemkanmardi (ST),
Belgaum Uttar,
Belgaum Dakshin,
Belgaum Rural,
Khanapur,
Kittur,
Bailhongal,
Saundatti Yellamma,
Ramdurg

19-25: Bagalkot District
Mudhol (SC), Terdal,
Jamkhandi, bilgi, Badami,
Bagalkot, Hungund,

26-33: Bijapur District
Muddebihal,
Devar Hippargi,
Basavana Bagevadi,
Babaleshwar,
Bijapur City,
Nagthan (SC),
Indi, Sindgi

34-46: Gulbarga District
Afzalpur, Jevargi,
Shorapur (ST),
Shahapur,
Yadgir, Gurmitkal,
Chittapur (SC),
Sedam,
Chincholi (SC),
Gulbarga Rural (SC),
Gulbarga Dakshin,
Gulbarga Uttar, Aland

47-52: Bidar District
Basavakalyan, Homnabad,
Bidar South, Bidar,
Bhalki, Aurad (SC)

65-68: Gadag District
Shirahatti (SC),
Gadag, Ron, Nargund

69-75: Dharwad Disrict
Navalgund, Kundgol,
Dharwad,
Hubli-Dharwad-East (SC),
Hubli-Dharwad-Central,
Hubli-Dharwad-West,
Kalghatgi

82-87: Haveri District
Hangal, Shiggaon,
Haveri (SC), Byadgi,
Hirekerur,
Ranibennur

The affidavit filed by the MLA from Hubli-Dharwad-Central, Mr. Jagadish Shettar would have been interesting to understand - wish I could read Kannada. A detailed analysis of the Karnataka Assembly polls can be found with Election Commission of India

The directory of official websites of Government of India was helpful.

Matchbox Front Loader

I purchased this Matchbox Front Loader truck for my 1.5 year old son in the Learning Express toy store in Atlanta and he loved it! It is very well made and looks like it will last a long time. I picked it at a discounted price of 14 USD.