My Lady of the Lantern

As the above pic in itself clarifies, today I am posting the pictures of three gifts I have received from my students. I enjoy teaching and if the gifts are thoughtful and given as a token of remembrance rather than flattery, I have retained the gifts. They are not too many but are close to my teaching experience overall. The first pic is of a key-ring that was gifted to me by an undergraduate student. There is an obvious mistake on the backside of the key-ring, but the ring carries my key to my apartment. [Gifted in 2006] The second pic is of a charm bracelet that was gifted to me by a post-graduate student. I love the bracelet. Though I dig stone and bead jewellery, I have never myself purchased such bracelets for myself and it is quite an exciting addition to my accessories. [Gifted in 2008] The third pic is of a small statue of Ganesha that a student gifted to me on Teacher’s Day. I liked it and so I have kept it. I am not very ritualistic and do not care much about collecting pho...

I normally despise the gyan that some people give me for free on fertility issues. But there are also times when I hear genuine words. This is not something which was told to me yesterday or the day before. Month after month, I was a fallen wicket. One day I was sharing my frustration with my father and there was one small thing he said. He told me that maybe God was saving me from an even more severe heartache. (We have a neighbour, whose granddaughter was born premature and is special). So, I should count my blessings and never give up on my efforts, but I should never treat my failure as the most 'painful' possibility. In the series of who-needed-you advice, there was one aunty in my building who asked me to have sex on Poornimas (full-moon nights), because it would increase my chances of having a boy child!!! Whoa! Haw! Hum! ^WiseGuy^

My first hot-flash...It happened today afternoon, waves of warmth flowing through me..... ^WiseGuy^

I made a mistake....I was supposed to take Wysolone on the same day as having the second Lupride Depot Injection, but it slipped my mind completely. So from last night onwards (two days after the injection), I have begun my dosage... ^WiseGuy^

This is a collection of kids – recent entrants to my environs. And each one of them is a charmer. Someday, I will post my own success story as well. //Picture removed to protect privacy DJ is a cool guy! (Literally)… he is my cousin’s son and is in the US. By far, I still do not have a one to one interaction with him. //Picture removed to protect privacy She is my sis-in-law’s daughter, and this photo of hers is when she was just a couple of hours old. Now she is almost seven months and has really evolved facial features //Picture removed to protect privacy And this is a favourite snap of a colleague’s son. He has very Pahadi (mountain-dwellers) looks, obvious from his lineage. His mom has posted a lot of snaps of him on Orkut but this is the one I like the best. //Picture removed to protect privacy C is the son of a very close friend. Again, this picture of his is taken when he was a couple of hours old. C is very affable, as reported by my mother who was the doctor who delivered him...

So, I had my second Lupride Depot injection yesterday and now I am on my final lap of the race towards IVF #1. I am still not very thorough about the protocol and am simply aware that in a few days from now, I will be taking daily injections for six days and then the harvest will begin. I know that only when I have atleast one run, I will become good at knowing about it, but I hope that I never need another IVF. ^WiseGuy^

This is one of the oldest family snaps - Me, Parents and bro J as the infant. I was 5 or 6 years old when this pic was taken (sometime in the early 1980s). For a long time I have felt that this photo is a portrait of what I and my brother became as adults. My brother became independent only when he went away to US for pursuing higher studies. I was always the break-free. Being the elder one, all the discipline and control tenets were tried and tested on me first and then experiences with me led my parents to suitably modify their techniques for the younger one. I went to a movie with my friends (I lied, was caught, and was slapped; but I had lied coz I would never have been permitted) when I was 17. My bro went to the movies with his friends at 13 (with due permission)! Anyways, the picture is from a family picnic organized by my father’s colleagues in the Anaesthesiology department. These picnics were annual affairs and filled with fun and laughter and a lot of chances at making good ...

My Crimson Tide is still high. It is freaking me.... Though the intensity is substantially reduced, it still remains.... and I am bugged. I have never had to use protection for so long and I am developing welts out there....Boo Hoo! Plus, a particular piece of clothing has gone from wearable to extremely tight within a fortnight... Leuprogon Depot's next fruit - bloating! ^WiseGuy^

I am still bleeding....And I have no conclusive evidence to say whether it is my periods I am going through or a protracted effect of Leuprogon Depot. I want to break free! Sanitary Napkins are a mind-sticker...invisibly stuck to your forehead, you can almost feel them there....rather than down-under! P.S. Thank God for Whisper!!! ^WiseGuy^

Still Spotting..... I was cranky today.... taking jabs at targets who provoked me enough! ^WiseGuy^

Ah, DH was planning a Singapore trip for both of us in early December this year. I would have travelled back after the vacation and he would have stayed on for a couple of days, for business reasons. I should have been jumping with joy (after all, this trip was one of the reasons why my passport was rushed), but I am not. Want to know why? Coz, I may be pregnant then. And if I were to be preggie, it would automatically come into the category of a high-risk pregnancy. Of course, there is no guarantee that I will be preggie in December but my IVF is planned for November. So, What if ?

I am having spotting – brownish discharge and I still don’t know whether my periods have begun or it just happens to be the session one of Leuprogon Depot fruits. My doc had told me about hot flushes, occasional spotting and possible changes in my period dates, but it is still almost 11 days to go for the scheduled periods. What? Am I babbling? Ya, about periods… I am waiting for my nine-month vacation .