sharidelic

We all know that Facebook and Twitter are the two most widely used social networks out there. How best to utilize them for your needs? Should you use one, none or both?

As with many things in the real world, there are no clear-cut answers. On a personal level, Facebook holds a greater appeal in its ability to connect with friends and maintain an ongoing dialogue. To this end, Facebook provides a rich set of tools – update, instant messaging, email as well as allowing sharing of images and video. This has allowed me to reconnect with many long lost friends and stay connected. Twitter, on the other hand, tends to be more focused. I find it shines for networking with people of similar interests and for tapping into trending topics. I tend to use it as a professional networking tool and to research useful first-hand information.

In this article, I will focus on how to utilize both for businesses. As a social media consultant, I frequently find myself having to craft a strategy for my clients that best leverages the strengths of both.

Facebook

In my opinion, a Facebook Page is a more interactive version of the traditional website. For many small businesses, Facebook Pages are taking over the function formerly served by their external websites. It makes it very easy to post updates and communicate with customers. Various Facebook applications help showcase media rich content within a simple layout which can be customized further. Pages are a useful vehicle to drive more traffic to the actual company website. Encouraging feedback, user content creation and content sharing can generate more “likes” and improve visibility.

Twitter

Tweets act like RSS feeds that can be broadcast to a wider audience, a powerful capability if you are looking for promotion. Twitter works really well in conjunction with Facebook or other social media tools. For instance, Twitter can be used as a recruitment tool for the Facebook page, a blog or a YouTube channel. As I mentioned before, it also makes it easy to tap into trending topics, participate in conversations and to make alliances that increase visibility. Success on Twitter is often measured by the follower base and number of re-tweets although in my opinion that’s a very basic yardstick. Additionally, mechanisms such as hashtags and links can improve the visibility of your tweets and allow easier discovery by other like minded folks.

Some Statistics

In terms of popularity, Facebook (not just business pages) leads over Twitter. It is nearing 700 million users compared to Twitter’s 300 million members.

Facebook vs Twitter Visitors. Courtesy: The Geek Club.

A share on Facebook reportedly generates more revenue than a tweet. A possible explanation is because a share comes with a higher level of trust and credibility, hence has more revenue generating power than a tweet from a stranger: A Facebook ‘share’ vs a Twitter ‘share’.

Facebook vs Twitter Revenue. Courtesy: SocialMediaToday.

Facebook or Twitter?

I think you have the answer already! It depends on the nature of the business! However, you don’t really have to choose. Facebook and Twitter work really well together with one complimenting the other. All content can be posted on Facebook with links on Twitter to drive traffic to the Facebook page and eventually to the company website. However, for small businesses or non-profits with a limited budget, just a Facebook strategy could be sufficient especially if the business is community focused. For customer service oriented companies, Twitter works better because it provides concise, prompt feedback with specific links. For example, many banks are using Twitter for their customer service these days. As for retailers, a combination of the two is most beneficial, since it is easier to set up events or post promotions on Facebook that can then be broadcast on Twitter. For technical bloggers, online marketers, evangelists and public figures, Twitter is now a must.

If you ask me, every week should have a mother’s day…probably on the weekend when moms can relax and celebrate the hard work they put in during the week. So a day in the entire year is certainly well deserved by mothers and I was looking forward to it!

So far my memories of mother’s day have been of extreme exhaustion because Virj invariably falls sick around that time. This year wasn’t much different but he temporarily recovered before the actual day.

My mother’s day celebration started a little early when Virj brought back a gift he made in school. I wanted to wait till the weekend to open it but obviously Virj didn’t have the patience and we ended up opening it early…. it was a hand made fridge magnet wrapped in a cute little box that had his photo on top. On the actual day, I woke up to very excited toddler handing over a gift bag in bed. Then he took the presents apart and licked every piece of chocolate before giving them back to me We subsequently went out for brunch and even managed to take a rare nap in the afternoon…so overall a very relaxing day indeed!

But, the best gift was when Virj went potty by himself for the first time! It might seem like “too much information” to many but I guarantee that parents of small kids who have changed diapers for 3+ years and struggled with potty training will relate to my sentiment! The joy of seeing the first piece of dooky in the potty was enormous!!! I’ll spare you more details and end my post on that note

Virj's mother's day gift from school

More gifts & treats to treasure!

This was exactly what I was frantically looking for today morning when I woke up with severe sore throat and “no voice”. I needed a quick fix within 2 hours before heading out for an interview. Obviously calling it off last minute wasn’t an option. I found some tips online and tried them all at once! Boy, I’ve never cared so much for my voice before….glad I’m not a singer! Result – I lasted one hour of continues talking without breaking my voice or coughing uncontrollable.

I thought I’d share the list with you so you don’t have to do a similar search, if ever in my position. After all, flu season ain’t over yet!

Hot Beverage – I usually start the day with a hot beverage and have switched from tea to hot cocoa to avoid the excess caffeine. I think hot milk works a little better than coffee or tea if you have sore throat because caffeine can make your throat dry. But, ginger tea with a little clove and honey, can work wonders. Both ginger and honey are antioxidants and have antimicrobial properties. Clove is also antibacterial and helps with bronchial congestion. I was too lazy to prepare the above concoction, so just stuck to my hot cuppa cocoa.

Saline water cleanse – Then I boiled a cup of water with a teaspoon of salt and gargled with it. This cleared up my throat substantially. I called Soam at that point to make sure I sounded normal on the phone. I was still having a little hissing sound in my voice. I read, adding lemon to the saline water helps too.

I repeated the above after breakfast and just before leaving the house, making sure not to drink cold water right after. That along with the sunny weather helped boost my overall spirit.

Cough drops – While I was still few blocks away from the office, I popped a throat lozenge. It was a regular CVS brand honey lemon cough drop with menthol. I prefer the Ricola brand but didn’t have any at home. I drank some water before the interview and that soothed and cleared my throat completely.

My voice is still intact after several hours now and mucho talking though I’m ready to call it a day and collapse in bed! I plan to keep my throat hydrated by drinking more glasses of water today and hope that I don’t have a relapse tomorrow morning!

A couple of weeks ago, while idly facebooking away, a shared link led to me an article talking up a Hollywood production, “Contagion“, starring Matt Damon, being shot in San Francisco. And yes, they were looking for extras. In general, I don’t really do that stuff because my agent doesn’t think it’s particularly worthwhile. However, I was curious about this one. First, it was a big budget shoot. Second, it was directed by Steven Soderbergh. Wouldn’t look too bad on my resume at all! So, on a fine sunny Sunday morning, I went up to San Francisco, stood in the long line outside the YMCA at the Embarcadero and submitted by headshot. I saw some recognizable faces – apparently the whole town had turned up to try their luck! I also overheard that a couple of thousand people had already submitted their photos the previous day and they were expecting another couple thousand that day. Daunting but that’s showbiz, isn’t it?

A week went by and I heard nothing. Then, lo and behold, the phone rang and it was the Contagion casting agent. I’d been selected for the role of an office worker at the FBI building in SF for the coming Friday. I was also told I’d be getting another call later in the week with more details. That call directed me to a hotline number I was supposed to ring the night before the shoot for directions/wardrobe details. Ringing the hotline yielded a recorded message asking us to bring a couple of sets of clothes to the shoot. Resisting the temptation to lug half my wardrobe to the set, I decided to stick to the basics because from my experience, that’s usually sufficient.

My actual reporting time was 8:30 in the morning. Early but miles better than something like 5 in the am. Phew! I took BART to the Civic Center stop and walked to my assigned location, the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Getting closer to the building, I saw Grove Street had entirely been blocked off and people were unloading equipment from trucks. They were putting up big yellow signs that said “Vaccination Center” on the top followed by instructions in English, Chinese, Arabic and another language I couldn’t recognize. As I wandered confused through this activity, a crew member was kind enough to point me to the entrance of the extras holding area. Inside, I checked in, was handed a form to fill and directed to inside to the huge auditorium where the rest of the cast were waiting. The space was full of small tables and chairs occupied by well-dressed men and women, mostly attired in business suits, working on filling out their forms. One side had been converted into a makeup area with ten or so dressing bays lined with chairs and surround lights and being manned by makeup artists. In another corner, there was the wardrobe area with clothes racks lined up against the wall. Actors stood in line to be inspected by two ladies. Most folks carried luggage filled with clothes or garment bags of business suits. I realized that the initial message about the FBI building and business attire must have created some confusion. Finally, there were two tables with breakfast food, snacks and beverage in the center of the room.

Actors filling forms

Makeup Area

Wardrobe Area

Food Table

The form we had to fill out was quite elaborate and I could see enlarged photocopies posted around the room for reference. A woman came around the tables checking everyone’s form along with IDs and signing them off. She was quite particular about mine. I ended up having to call home several times to get information. After all this, one of the makeup folks called me to do my hair. She spent a lot of time straightening it out but took off what little makeup I had on. Apparently, we were all supposed to look tired and somewhat ill, like, in their words, “after being stranded in the airport for three days.” I suppose extras in a film entitled “Contagion” aren’t supposed to resemble partygoers in Club Med, more like the poor hordes stranded in European airports over Christmas! I didn’t understand, however, why then would they spend so much time on getting my hair to look so good?

My actual wardrobe check was quick as I had the right outfit on – my experience of dressing for auditions proved to be useful. Each of us extras were given different types of masks to cover our faces. I appreciated the depth of thinking by wardrobe department here. After all, if this was supposed to be an epidemic, many would be wearing makeshift masks of various types. They shouldn’t look alike.

We sat around chatting for the next couple of hours while we waited to be called in. Ages and background varied widely from opera singers, SAG affiliated actors to kids, moms, tourists, retirees and regular office workers who had taken the day off to be a part of this experience. Some actually came for the free food and the paycheck! There were doctors and medical professionals in the mix as well as SF policemen and members of the National Guard, here to lend authenticity to the proceedings. I even spoke to a systems engineer who was very excited to have been selected. It felt more like a big block party than work!

We were finally called for the shoot and asked to line up in front of the building. The set was ready by then with more signs on the building and border patrol trucks parked all over. And we had an audience – passers by had gathered around the cordoned area to watch. We were given fake vaccination cards to hold. We were also told that Jude Law would be on the set, so we should control our urges to throw ourselves at him .. er .. not get in the way or take pictures. Then, a couple of assistant casting directors came by, picking some of us out of the line to appear in a special scene. A mother and her young daughter standing in front of me were asked to step aside. Next, an African American girl a few feet behind me. Just when I started wondering if I would be that lucky, I was asked to join them as well! It turned out seven of us had been selected for a special scene with Jude Law. In addition to the mother/daughter and the girl, we also had a mother/son, myself and a middle aged Asian lady. SF diversity represent!

What followed was a series of rehearsals and practice takes to determine the exact sequence. We had to walk through the park situated across the auditorium while Mr. Law passed us on his way to take some photos of the building. I believe he’s playing a journalist. The director, Steven Soderbergh, along with the rest of his crew were present at the location, shooting from a distance. There was a small black tent for the monitors as well as editing equipment but the rest of the folks stood around in the sun in between takes. All of the actors waited near a snack area that had been set up next to the border patrol trucks that provided some shade. Jude Law stood a few feet from us, sipping some water and waiting. It was pretty amazing to see the level of professionalism on the set, nothing like the stories of high maintenance Hollywood and Bollywood divas and their entourages.

While waiting, the seven of us started chatting in a bid to take our minds off Jude The Not-So-Obscure standing close to us. “Where’s the director?”, one of the mothers asked. When we pointed Steven out to her she said, “oh, he was just talking to my son a little while ago, showing us pictures of his kids on his phone!”

Vaccination Center Sign

Location shot

The way the scene ended up being structured, I had the privilege of walking past Jude Law in one of the shots. If it makes it through edit, I hope to see myself on the big screen! A couple more takes and it was over. We were asked to go back inside the building and wait. In a while, we were called back again, this time for a group shot of all us walking out of the building. And that was it for us. We were given the option of staying for lunch or leaving early. I was starving by then, so I decided to stay for the elaborate spread. By the time I left, about 6 hours from when I arrived, the whole set was wrapped up and the crew had left for the next San Francisco location for another scene.

PS: A special thanks to the set crew for letting me take pictures after the shooting was over!

This is a quick update/journal entry for myself, so that I remember this milestone couple of years down the line.

Virj had his three-year checkup last week and the results were: Weight: 45 lbs (99%) and Height: 40.5 inches (95%). We think his height is more because he was constantly moving or bending his legs while they were trying to measure him, and because he wears 5T clothes already! His BMI: 19.29 (98%)…oops! Looks like we’ll have to put him on a diet!!! We find this amusing and ironically it is a mark of our achievement! If you recall, Virj used to to be underweight at some point. I wrote about it briefly in one of my earlier posts.

Since birth till around 6 months Virj was 50% all around and then rapidly fell to about 5% in weight (falling off the growth chart) in the first year. He had to see a pediatric gastroenterologist and undergo a lot of tests. Eventually, he was put on a high calorie diet and monitored every month. His gastroenterologist even suggested a feeding clinic in case his weight didn’t improve within a specified period. Luckily, it never came to that and all the butter and cheese, along with gallons of PediaSure restored his position on the growth chart! I remember being very disappointed at around 11 months when his gastroenterologist suggested that I might as well stop breastfeeding because he wasn’t getting enough calories and asked us to add formula to breast milk. I however, continued my breastfeeding efforts for the next 5 months, being a hard-core California mom ridden with purist guilt! For the next year, our (as well as our nanny’s) primary focus was to load Virj up with lots of calories, which by the way, wasn’t easy at all since Virj is a fussy eater and had severe acid reflux. Our carpets, sofas and bed sheets still retain some evidence of that even after several washes and professionally cleanings.

So now you see why we were so happy to hear that our son is on the verge on being over weight! Honestly, I’m not worried because it won’t be difficult to get his weight down…all I have to do is stop nagging him to eat! The other observation by his doctor was —

While Virj was bouncing off the walls at the doctor’s office, the doctor once paused and asked us “Is he like this all the time?” Our reply: “Ummm…yeah, and more…”. Then he looked at us and said: “No wonder you guys look tired!”. Again, ironic but it made us happy that somebody acknowledged our efforts! Then the doctor went on to suggest a lot of activities like swimming, soccer, lot of outdoor play, etc to expend Virj’s energy. Is he implying I become a soccer mom? Yikes!! The other day Virj’s teacher at preschool said something similar too. Oh well, this energy runs in the family….my brother was a rambunctious kid and my dad still works like a 45 year old and refuses to retire at 75!

3-year old Virj (Take #25!)

2010 was certainly one of the craziest years for our family! The list of events in our lives and that of our extended family included hospitalizations, surgeries, non trivial injuries of various kinds and, sadly, even deaths. In addition, we had the usual work related stress for Soam and myself, some major ups, some disappointments and challenges of raising an ultra busy toddler. Looking for quality childcare almost seemed to be an ongoing, constant activity for us, particularly in the first half of the year.

Thankfully, in the end most of it worked out well. Soam hit some major milestones in his career, I picked up more work skills and acting/modeling experience. Virj started preschool, grew almost 4 inches and 5 pounds, started communicating with REAL words and is on his way of getting potty trained. We can only pray he doesn’t go through too many briefs and bedsheets in the meantime! Oh, I almost forgot to mention, he completed another paying modeling assignment, this time for AMD.

I also finally managed to lose the last bit of baby fat (yes, after 3 years of Virj) and toned quite a bit. It’s a weird feeling searching the closet for tops that haven’t been worn for years only to find out that, yes, I can fit into them again but now they’re out of fashion. The slacks still work…yippee! Can’t say it was an easy journey and now I’m setting my new goal to lose another 5 lbs…too ambitious??

Soam’s post on Reasons To Be Cheerful Pt 3 highlights some of the things that kept us going. I would add the following to that list:

• Being Yoga when I needed regular yoga trying to recover from a foot injury
• Virj’s daycare and Calvary Preschool with its very caring teachers. They deserve most of the credit for Virj’s tremendous progress!
• Diane Roby again for the opportunity to work on some fun projects!

We had a great year-end trip to Vegas around Christmas and the last few days of celebration definitely makes me very optimistic for the New Year! I have made no resolutions but hope to apply my experience from last year to make 2011 more successful!!

Virj turned 3 last month on Nov 20. We had a small birthday celebration for him at home. I wanted to keep it simple this year…well, that’s what I planned for the last two years too but it always ended up being big. This year, the weather forecast wasn’t in favor of an outdoor party, so I was forced to keep the guest list short…can’t imagine keeping more than 10 kids (mostly toddlers) entertained at home. Since, Virj has made some friends in school and day care, I wanted to invite few of them. It felt a little awkward inviting the kids from his daycare whose parents I hardly ever met. I sent out hand written invitations through the daycare provider and called them later to confirm. Luckily, I knew the moms/guardians of the kids from his school and it was much easier inviting them. I was really happy that two of his new friends attended the party along with their families.

As you know, Virj loves anything on wheels but his latest obsession is trains, particularly Thomas the Tank Engine. If you remember, he even sort of wanted to be Thomas for Halloween, which we had then ignored. So, I decided to make up for it by throwing him a Thomas party! I started off by sending Thomas invitation cards to his friends in school and daycare. The rest of our friends received a train themed Evite invitation. I used Thomas the Tank Engine wall appliqués to decorate the main party area along with red and blue balloons. I set up his old wooden train sets on the selves around the wall decoration to create a miniature train town feel. Virj’s birthday gift from us was a train table with a 100-piece train set that was laid out in the living room with a happy birthday banner and balloon in the background. We waited till the night before to assemble it so that Virj had a nice surprise in the morning. We also wanted to make sure he didn’t wreck it before his birthday. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an easy IKEA kind of furniture assembly and Soam only managed to set up the the table before the next morning. Needless, the kids had a great time with the loose train pieces and one of the parents even helped us put together some of the structures/bridges during the party itself.

Evite invitation

Each kid got a Thomas train party visor/hat and Thomas whistle when they arrived. I arranged for various indoor activities and crafts to keep the preschoolers occupied. We bought a lot of art supply from IKEA and some last minute ones from Target. Besides, there were lots of toys to play with and of course the train table to keep the boys busy! The kids had a great time and it helped them work up the appetite for their pizza lunch. Even Virj was asking for food and gobbled down a whole slice in minutes! There were cheese and pepperoni pizzas for the kids and mixed vegetarian, meat and a soy cheese pizza as well as salad, for the adults. And, of course a Thomas the Tank Engine cake at the end. The kids were super psyched to see the cake and it was hard to keep Virj from grabbing the Thomas train off the cake before it was laid out. He had a big smile while everyone sang for him and Soam and I helped him blow off the candle and cut the cake. Every child got a goody bag on their way out, some of which had train puzzles, books and candies. For the little ones, I bought toys that were more appropriate for their age. The adults had a good time too and we had a quieter after party for some of our friends without kids!

Virj later enjoyed opening the “pasants” aka presents, another new word to add to his vocabulary. He subsequently had birthday celebrations both at his preschool and daycare and came home with more “pasants”. Here are some fond memories from the event!

Thomas the Tank Engine party

Train table gift from mom & dad

Hmm...nom nom picao (pizza)

Thomas the Tank Engine cake for 3 year old Virj

Cake cutting

Party accessories

I have practiced yoga, on and off, for the last 20 years and grew up hearing about yoga philosophy, astrology and ayurveda. The later happened quite naturally growing up in India in a practicing Hindu household. When I first started taking yoga classes at a local gym in Calcutta, I considered it to be a form of exercise, the best recommended workout by my then yoga certified instructor. Apparently, he trained with the same guru as Bikram Chaudhury of Bikram Yoga fame. Anyway, my point is that I never consciously associated yoga to Hinduism growing up in urban India, but in retrospect, I realize the connection was always there, it just was never made explicit. By itself, yoga is not a religion to me except for the lotus pose my grandmother said was essential for meditation, and unquestioning, we sat that way every evening during prayer time. I did see my dad do pranayama during religious ceremonies. And, of course every move in our life was “supposedly” governed by the location of stars in the Universe, aka astrology. Overall though, our generation was not particularly bothered with ancient Hindu philosophy nor did our elders teach us about our long history. We were too busy following western culture! I loved my all-girl catholic school and I spent more time in church masses than in meditation!

I was reintroduced to yoga after taking a yoga class at San Francisco State University, where the instructor talked about astrology and quoted Hindu philosophers I’d heard of only in passing while growing up. It made me a little uncomfortable…it was like she was lecturing me about my own culture! I have taken a lot of different yoga classes in San Francisco and the Peninsula since then, often being the only Indian in the class and struggling to keep up with her fellow American students I kid! Honestly I’m not that bad, thanks to my yoga training earlier on in life

I admire the dedication of a lot of yogis I met in America and honestly learned so much more about yoga here. I also met some genuinely nice people through yoga who I hold in very high regard. But, I am still baffled by the lack of acknowledgment to the country from where yoga originates and the commercialization of yoga. Have you noticed that the yoga magazines hardly ever feature any Indian faces other than the few old bearded sadhus (Indian priests) with a tower of dreadlocks on their heads? On the other hand, most yoga brands and accessories revolve around Hinduism and Indian culture. For example, pictures of Hindu gods like Ganesha and symbols like Om are abundantly used by yoga brands. I’ve even seen Sanskrit alphabets and henna designs on yoga clothing! But, people can’t make the connection with Hinduism because there is very little knowledge about it. Most still can’t tell the difference between the words “Hindi” and “Hindu”— the former is a language and the latter is the religion! Just the other day, I even overheard a lady ask the receptionist at my local Bikram yoga studio whether yoga originated in India or China?

Ganesha on yoga shirt	Ganesha on yoga pants
Hindu goddess on yoga shirt	Om, the most common symbol used by yoga brands

The 7 chakras with Sanskrit alphabets that forms an integral part of Hinduism

Henna designs on yoga brand

By now, you must be wondering why I started this controversial topic? Well, The NY Times article, Hindu Group Stirs a Debate Over Yoga’s Soul, is to blame for it It did stir up some sentiments! I absolutely believe what Debbie Desmond, a yoga instructor in Williamsburg, Brooklyn says:

“Nobody owns yoga.”

But, then again, isn’t that the core business model of Bikram Yoga (which I now practice regularly) — owning 26 yoga poses done in a particular style?

A yoga class being held at Saraswathi Hall in Flushing, Queens.
Photo courtesy: The NY Times

On the other hand, being a parent I can also relate to Dr. Aseem Shukla’s (co-founder of Take Back Yoga) sentiments:

“We started this, really, for our kids,” said Dr. Shukla, an urologist and a second-generation Indian-American. “When our kids go to school and say they are Hindu, nobody says, ‘Oh, yeah, Hindus gave the world yoga.’ They say, ‘What caste are you?’ Or ‘Do you pray to a monkey god?’ Because that’s all Americans know about Hinduism.”

There will always be wars on patents and branding, whether it’s yoga or neem oil. It’s for the governments and corporations to fight, and honestly, whoever has more money/power will win. In the meantime, however, us Indians would definitely like a little more recognition in yoga, ayurveda and all the cool Hindu stuff! Please don’t box us into arranged marriages, outsourcing, call centers and Bollywood! We have some fun things to offer too. If you are nice to me, I might even give you the secret recipe for the herbal concoction that makes your skin glow!

It’s almost a month since Halloween but had to write about Virj’s adventures and his discovery of “kaaki” aka candy! As with most parents with small kids, our Halloween now revolves around Virj. Gone are the days of elaborate costume planning, adult Halloween parties and spending Halloween night in the Mission or the Castro district of San Francisco! Now, it’s kiddie Halloween parties and trick or treating with neighborhood kids. Honestly, I’m thoroughly enjoying this! Last year Virj was a year and half old, so though he enjoyed the parties and distributing candies to the neighborhood kids on Halloween night, I don’t think he really knew what was going on. But, this year he certainly got a better hang of things.

Since, Virj hates wearing a hat, I started looking for costumes without a head piece/cover. We thought he’d make a very cute 70′s rock star given his curly hair and personality. Soam felt he could also be a hippie kid with a flower power ensemble. But, it was really difficult to find the exact costume in his size. On one of our trips to the store, Virj pointed out the Thomas The Tank Engine costume but we decided to ignore that and go with our preference After all, this was probably the last year we could dress him up our way. Besides, I don’t think Virj necessarily wanted to be Thomas or understood the concept of a costume but recognized it being a big fan of trains and Thomas by extension.

After a lot of research, we decided to make him Elvis especially because of the white jumpsuit. We knew we would not give him the Elvis hairdo but felt he’d look equally cute with his natural fro I ordered the costume and after some alterations at home, it was the perfect fit. I’m happy to report that Virj got a lot of compliments and good use of the costume as he attended several Halloween parties and parades. I even had to wash the outfit twice within a span of 2 weeks…white isn’t the best color for toddler use!

Virj first learned about “poupou” when we took him to a pumpkin patch and later in drawing faces on pumpkins with me. So, he readily recognized his pumpkin bucket when he first carried it. He had a great time at his preschool Halloween ice-cream social but went overboard with excitement when he discovered the joys of treat or treating at Goblin Grotto, a local event at our city recreation center. Thus his introduction to candies! It was a little embarrassing when Virj kept going back for more “kaakies” and this was even before he had tasted any. I guess he found it amusing. And, sure enough he got tons of them…after all, who could resist a cute little Elvis with curly hair and a big smile Alas, I had to hide his stash because once he got a taste of a candy, he wanted to open all and lick them (not eat though, hah!).

Subsequently, we took Virj to more Halloween parties, parades and house-to-house trick or treating on Halloween night. The neighborhood we picked was a very popular one in the Peninsula where hordes of people came for trick or treating. It was quite an experience, reminded me of Durga Puja (the main Bengali festival) in Kolkata. It was fun for a while but not ideal for small kids, especially if you need to lug along a stroller.

Here are some snapshots to highlight the moments!

Virj exploring various poupous at a pumpkin patch	Displaying his artwork on the pumpkins
Fun activities at the preschool ice-cream social	More Halloween parties
Treat or Treating	Elvis with his bucket of candies

Halloween decoration

Jack-o-lantern

Does this sound like a cliché? It might, but still I thought of relating my saga from the last few months. I’m pretty sure, if it weren’t baseball, it would have been some other sport like basketball, football, tennis or cricket. So, no offense to baseball! I’m just thankful that it’s not all of them at once!

Anyway, coming back to my story, my husband is a huge Giants fan, ta-da!!! So, you can imagine he has been a tortured soul for years not quite acknowledging his true love for the team. But, this season, he emerged from his shell – early on in the season I might add – and decided to support the team full-heartedly. I’m happy to see the outcome and genuinely excited about Giants winning the World Series! But, it hasn’t been an easy journey for our family, or a quick conversion for me (well…I have to admit I’ve followed the last few games reluctantly). Maybe my experience is reflective of the difficult journey the Giants team members made this year and the transformation they’ve had (?). Torture!

Virj supporting the team.

Soam’s excuse has always been that watching baseball is his best form of relaxation after a crazy workday. I didn’t complain at first when he started spending all his “spare time” watching or following baseball on TV, Internet, radio… etc. Yes, “spare time” was a luxury this year too as he worked round the clock most days! Imagine the plight of his wife and child…. Even when he was ready for some family time, there was baseball blaring from the radio in the background. We had many arguments over him not paying attention while having an important discussion with me….hmmm, tuning out your wife is a not a smart move, LOL!! Having Roku and the access to the Major League Baseball channel didn’t help things a bit. He watched old recordings when a live game wasn’t on. Sometimes, Virj would switch off the TV or hide the remote to get daddy’s attention.

So, you can imagine Soam’s tension last evening during Game 5. He was sitting on the edge of his seat and getting annoyed at Virj for hovering in front of the TV. But, in the end all the tension and frustration paid off, as the Giants emerged victorious! Hah, it does sound like a long, torturous battle, when I say that way. But, I’m glad to have my life back and a happy husband who can now discuss baseball without cringing at his wife’s ignorance. To that I say — GO GIANTS!!!

The San Francisco Giants celebrate after winning the World Series. Photo: David J. Phillip; Courtesy: ABC7 Photos.