Aadhaar Seva Kendra (ASK) in Bangalore - Such a breeze.

Aadhaar Seva Kendra (ASK) is now open in Bangalore. This is located in the Basavanagudi - South End Circle area. The ASK is a stone throw from the South End Circle Metro Station.

This brings the focus firmly back on Aadhaar. Previously banks and post offices were the only avenues and the experience was a bag of crap. 

The ASK is modelled on the lines of the Passport Seva Kendra and starts with a queue for Token, then a document verification queue, payment and then registration or update services of the Aadhaar.

The process was super quick and super easy. After standing in queues for tokens in front of SBI bank for hours together just to be denied tokens since only 10-15 are issued each day and taken for rides by the bank staff (treated like shit), the experience in the ASK brought solace to my soul. Thanks. Amen. 

Read my review on Google: https://goo.gl/maps/3MtExNPGpQKM8Wvc7

The 12th of March, 2014

Pallavi spent over night at the hospital - Fortis @ Bannerghatta road. The OT was scheduled for 8.45 am. Pallavi's mom was with her. 

It was almost 7.45 am when we (My mom, Arjun, Pallavi's dad and myself) got into the car to drive to the hospital. The road was full of early morning commuter traffic. Plus frantic calls from Pallavi for filling up the consent forms for the OT. Finally keeping cool prevailed and we reached close to 8.20 am. 

Consent form all done, Pallavi was wheeled into the OT and I was asked to suit up for entering the OT. It was freaky and I was nervous, but I also became the first family to see the just born being whisked out. Boy. Elation mixed with a little let down. But Pallavi was happy or appeared to be so. It was more difficult for me to underplay my emotions.

Outside and in plain clothes, started the big list of messages, whatsapps, phone calls for conveying the message. Somu, Pallavis cousin came by and helped in getting the hospital admission for the new born. Mom was making sure Arjun was warming up to the new born when Pallavi was being wheeled in after the procedure. 

Sudha athai and Sunil came by to spread the congratulations. It was a lot of merry. Arjun was feeling hungry and I dropped him and his Apaai back home for him to have lunch and the mid afternoon siesta. I rushed back to the hospital to get some quality time with the new born without Arjun getting J. He really loves his papa... 

Pallavi was wide awake, but in of stiffness and pain, but was chatty and thus started a conversation about the name for the new born. Frankly all our plans was around a girl baby. We had a name picked out. We had plans to move to a bigger house and a bigger car. All thats out. Back to the name. We picked one from the shortlist. It is making its way to the BBMP registers as I make this post. More on the name later. 

Medical insurance pre-op required some work and that was promptly dispatched. A box of chocolates for the people visiting us at the hospital and a  box for the Nurses Station. By now return messages started pouring in, and this was all done for. Pallavi's mom was to spend the night at the hospital and I drove back home with Pallavi's dad. The day was phenomenal, but a good indication of the days ahead. 

So thats how God spoke it. Two boys it is. He has designed for Arjun to have a little brother to spar and for the little one to have a big brother in Arjun. One thing that is going to be simpler is that the love will be equally distributed, not just from us but from the family in whole. If it was a girl, then Arjun would have been J much much more. I think thats what was in Gods will... 

Volleyball

One of the good things I enjoy about living @ Springfields is that it has a 20k sq. ft ground. And a few gentlemen folks who man the Springfields Welfare Association (SWA) happened to be Volleyball enthusiasts and put an outdoor court on this ground.

So almost every evening, few folks (sometimes 3 a side to sometimes 4 teams of 7 members each) get together for a few games. Now that we have played almost for a year, the games have become of good quality.

I used to play Volleyball back in school. I used to enjoy it so much. I was one the most loved things for me at school. This was the teens. I have not played any sport in my 20s. Now I hope this changes in the 30s that an hour or two of Volleyball a day will keep me fit. Will it keep me flexible, I do not know. But its a thing I enjoy about every day @ Springfields.

ActivelyLazy

Its good to be back on blogger. The interface has changed. The google guys are doing a fantastic job.

Whats changed:

• Arjun is growing up, that will continue like forever. 
• Kiran came back from sailing with an injured finger. Got recuperated and is back to sailing on MOL Comptetence. You can track him here - http://www.marinetraffic.com or here http://www.facebook.com
• Sabrina got married. Been home for Diwali and then the wedding and came back an exhausted family. 
• Sujesh got married. This was fun. An extended family of 20+ folks with kids and bags taking the train to Tiruvarur and wedding over a couple of days. A week off at work, this was fun, the way wedding should be!
• We moved houses to an apartment in Spring fields. The apartment is great and the apartment complex is superb. 

More on whats not changed later.

Vinayagar leads the way forward.

Vinayaga Chaturthi Vaazthukkal. Folks enjoy the holiday season...

Mommy is in town for a couple days and is having a blast with her grandson.
Work is light since it is an end of release and that has let off a lot of steam.
Lots of folks have left Bangalore on vacation to their home towns or to places and traffic is very light...