I read only 149wpm

when I took a reading speed test today(http://www.winningprep.com/ReadingTest)

I took 7 min 59 sec to read 1187 words... and the calculated speed of reading was 149 words per min. when i looked up in google to check what a decent reading speed usually is, i was not surprised. I knew i am a slow reader but i get a feeling today that i am pathetically slow :(

The average college student reads between 250 and 350 words per minute on fiction and non-technical materials. A "good" reading speed is around 500 to 700 words per minute, but some people can read 1000 words per minute or more on these materials.

Factors that Reduce Reading Rate (picked from http://www.reachoutmichigan.org

1.	Limited perceptual span (word-by-word reading)
2.	Slow perceptual reaction time (slow recognition and response to the material)
3.	Vocalization (reading aloud)
4.	Faulty eye movements (ncluding inaccuracy in placement of the page, in return sweep, in rhythm and regularity of movement, etc.)
5.	Regression (needless or unconscious re-reading)
6.	Faulty habits of attention and concentration (including simple inattention during the reading act and faulty processes of retention)
7.	Lack of practice in reading—use it or lose it!
8.	Fear of losing comprehension, causing the person to deliberately read more slowly
9.	Habitual slow reading, in which the person cannot read faster because he or she has always read slowly
10.	Poor evaluation of which aspects are important and which are unimportant
11.	The effort to remember everything rather than to remember selectively

Just before finishing this post, I took one more test attempts and here is the result- 172wpm with 73% comprehension. This means while the comprehension is not bad, the speed is too less.

A little more about reading profiles as picked frm http://www.readingsoft.com

110 wpm, slow reader, but you have many possibilities for improvement.
240 wpm, oral reader. You may rapidly and significantly progress by suppressing subvocalization.
400 wpm, auditory reader.
1000 wpm, visual reader. Your reading speed is the gem of your CV.

I am gonna work on it!

Will be back in a week with my new results..

JUST A MUM?

JUST A MUM?

A woman, renewing her driver's license at the Motor Registration office,
was asked by the counter clerk to state her occupation.

She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself.

'What I mean is,' explained the counter clerk,
'do you have a job or are you just a ..?'

'Of course I have a job,' snapped the woman.
'I'm a Mum.'

'We don't list 'Mum' as an occupation,

'housewife' covers it,'
Said the clerk emphatically.


I forgot all about her story until one day I found myself in the same situation, this time at our own Medicare office.

The Clerk was obviously a career woman, poised, efficient, and possessed of a high sounding title like,
'Official Interrogator' or 'Town Registrar.'

'What is your occupation?' she probed.

What made me say it? I do not know.
The words simply popped out.
'I'm a Research Associate in the field of
Child Development and Human Relations.'

The clerk paused , ball-point pen frozen in midair and
looked up as though she had not heard right.

I repeated the title slowly emphasizing the most significant words.
Then I stared with wonder as my pronouncement was written,
in bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.

'Might I ask,' said the clerk with new interest,
'just what you do in your field?'

Coolly, without any trace of fluster in my voice,
I heard myself reply,
'I have a continuing program of research,
(what mother doesn't)
In the laboratory and in the field,
(normally I would have said indoors and out).
I'm working for my Masters, (first the Lord and then the whole family)
and already have four credits (all daughters).
Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities,
(any mother care to disagree?)
and I often work 14 hours a day, (24 is more like it).
But the job is more challenging than most run-of-the-mill careers and the rewards are
more of a satisfaction rather than just money.'

There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk's voice as she
completed the form, stood up, and personally ushered me to the door.

As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up by my glamorous new career,
I was greeted by my lab assistants -- ages 13, 7, and 3.
Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model,
(a 6 month old baby) in the child development program,
testing out a new vocal pattern.
I felt I had scored a beat on bureaucracy!
And I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished and indispensable to mankind than 'just another Mum.' Motherhood!

What a glorious career!
Especially when there's a title on the door.


Does this make grandmothers
'Senior Research associates in the field of
Child Development and Human Relations'
And great grandmothers
'Executive Senior Research Associates?'
I think so!!!
I also think it makes Aunts
'Associate Research Assistants.'

(An email forward that I couldnt resist but post, for all those mothers out there!)

Tag of 30 sweet nothings!

After reading this one at so many bloggers I got myself tagged by havng commented at some of them.

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?

“puffy eyes again!”

2. How much cash do you have in your wallet right now?

"I ain't getting up from here to check that! plsss"

3. What’s a word that rhymes with DOOR?

"sea SHORE :)"

4. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?

"A friends husband who insisted he will pick us up for biryani lunch last wkend"

5. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone?

"No fav there.. am fine with the default one, dont even remember which one that is."

6. What are you wearing right now?

"T-shirt & Shorts", thats tells the kind of shopper I am. Tee worth rs. 50 picked last year from a roadside stall near Thane station and shorts worth 800 bucks from Fisherman's Cove @ Taj resort, Chennai in mar'06 n i still fit in them :)"

7. Do you label yourself?

"I dont think so.."

8. Name the brand of the shoes you’re currently own?

"Reebok"

9. Bright or Dark Room?

"Both at different times, basically depending on what i am doing"

10. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?

"I like their blogs so I read them.. "

11. What does your watch look like?

"Not a watch person, have 3 but the one i wear most is a citizen quartz with gold chain and a small dial."

12. What were you doing at midnight last night?

"looking for a cocktail recipe ;)"

13. What did your last text message you received on your cell say?

“Some special offer from Du”

14. What’s a word that you say a lot?

"wow, i dont know."

15. Who told you he/she loved you last?(please exclude spouse , family, children)

"CS :P"

16. Last furry thing you touched?

"My blanket while folding it this morning"

17. Favourite age you have been so far?

"Marriage and thereafter :)"

18. What was the last thing you said to someone?

“Okie byeee.."

19.The last song you listened to?

"Abhi na jao chod ke.. ke dil abhi bhara nahi."

20. Where did you live in 1987?

"AF stn Uttarlai, Rajasthan, India."

21. Are you jealous of anyone?

"Yes, at times"

22. Is anyone jealous of you?

"no idea"

23. Name three things that you have on you at all times?

"some thoughts, some dreams and my optimism."

24. What’s your favourite town/city?

"No fav yet. But i like Bangalore, Mangalore, hometown and the whole of uttaranchal."

25. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?

"Must be one of those rakhi letters"

26. Can you change the oil on a car?

"Nope"

27. Your first love/big crush: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?

"That he’s doing good :D!"

28. Does anything hurt on your body right now?

"Nope"

29.What is your current desktop picture?

"The collage i made for dad"

30. Have you been burnt by love?

"burnt? it is supposed to brighten up things, isnt it."

I will end it with a beautiful song i am listening to...

aur mera popat ho gaya!

poocho kaise?

I burnt the midnight oil working on a collage to be presented to dad on this fathers day. Whole of last night. And then just before sleeping at 6:15am I wrote a mail to pa. And one to bro who is in Mumbai, to order flowers and have them delivered at home during the day while he was at work. (I dint realize that it is wkend and he would be home.. but thats not a big cause of worry). Task done, I slept peacefully at that odd hour.

Today, I just woke up to a call from Turkey :P at around 11am (half past noon India time), with eyes resembling batata with a black hole. It took me a while to understand that he was asking me to login to skype as he had called from his friends international roaming. All excited for I remembered fathers day, i passed on the wishes to his friend who is a relatively new dad. And there you go!!!

what I am just made aware of, is-

Father's day is not today but tomorrow. "wishing someone on the wrong day is sign of being a big POPAT".. yes! nooooooo :(

& I had already painted the town red last night in celebration mode, thinking today was FD... what a flop..

The only saving grace is that it is still a day in advance, but enough for me to feel like a popat!!!

The point is - How could I be so absent minded.. the entire blame goes to laptop and internet combo.

Yday when the thought of making a family collage struck me, it was already past midnight here, I chked the laptop clock which anyways shows India time so the date was 20th June. Google reconfirmed that FD is on 21st. I tell myself "Its fathers day tomorrow and I have not done anything about it". While we dont usually celebrate these days in particular, this time I wanted to. various reasons, and i wanted to. But not once in the whole night did i realize that what i thought as tomorrow was actually day after...

Nevertheless.. its better than sending belated wishes!! I shall call the bro to see if he has even logged in to chk his emails... Dad definitely wont mind getting early wishes..

The other thing that went awry, like Dhiren's dowry is my complaint in the last post.. that someone didnt call me the whole of yday.

The fact was - my cell was lying somewhere, dead for want of charged battery.. when i realized that, i quickly put it on charger only to see 3 missed calls. too bad that the post was already published by then :(

he must have really thought i am having some great fun...

Coming back to the collage, the special thing about it is - it has all the family members( hum paanch with spouses n di's kid). Ironically, we dont have any pictures of all of us in single frame as jiju had missed our wedding n being spread across geographically, we all have met only in smaller groups in last 2 years..

:( Di has just gone back after spending one whole month with mom-dad and manu is back to mumbai.. So you can imagine why i am missing them all the more and sat for making that collage?

But I must admit :) I have done a great job. Looks like we all stood together to pose for it. The collage is my latest wallpaper, So i wont be opening any windows today..

Another addiction..

Friends often ask me a question. "So, how do you spend your time?". It is a common feeling that having no job and staying away from family after marriage means you almost have no life and you are supposed to get bored.

Amit is worried about the day I start feeling bored. He thinks I left my job due to his job movement requirements. Ofcourse that was one reason but he also knows how desperately I was looking for a break from work.

But anyways, there is no such sign around here so far..

Between trying something at home that I never did before, learning new stuff and just reading keeps me busy. The biggest blessing is Internet. No time is enough when you have google, youtube and the blogworld in front of you. Infact, we often call internet the 'vo' of our life. You will know what I mean if you have heard of "miyan, biwi aur vo". Most of the masala (read fights) in our life also comes from there. But thats fun.

Amit is enjoying life in Turkey.. He says he went to princess island yday and to his surprise there are deodar and pine trees there. Of which, he didnt send me the pictures inspite of promising to do. Leave that, he hasnt even called me the whole of today. Busy in city tour I guess, so I am not complaining. But for this one good thing (internet, sweetheart!), i would be sulking and grumbling and feeling sorry for myself. Thats exactly why i called it a blessing..

But no. Today I covered all the shows of Vir Sanghavi's Star Talk, available on you tube. Rakhi Gulzar, Sharmila Tagore, Neena Gupta, Karishma, Saif, Sushmita, Tabu, Sonia Gandhi, Shehnaz Hussain and so on.. I love watching talk shows and interviews.. It tells me that life can be really complex for some and its inspiring to see how they all have been a survivor as an individual.

Thats that. But the addiction that I wanted to write about in this post is something else. I started writing and it has gone somewhere else altogether :) you see how we digress!!

When we went to see new born-Ibrahim few weeks back, there was also a match going on in the evening. And a yummy biryani was being made by his lovely grandmom. In the mid of all this I could still see a partly made jigsaw puzzle of Eiffel Tower lying on the table. I, like a 5 year old, got engrossed in building it further. Amit must have been embarrased to see this initially but soon enough everyone was picking up bits and pieces and fixing them on. I found THAT very ADDICTIVE. I completed the tower part and left the sky for the baby's DAD

Today I found that you get such puzzles online as well and tried one here.

you can customize it and its timed!! try this if strategy games interest you and you ever want to kill time..

I read on some blog that more the links in ur post, the better.. you know what, this is addictive too

When he is not around...

I have been writing something and then deleting it, writing again and again deleting it for last couple of minutes. Because I didnt want to use any words that will reflect a feeling of being alone or of missing someone.

The whole day goes by fine but as it comes to the evening, (the time when he comes in quietly and makes an attempt at scaring me and succeeding most of the times.. hmphhh...) I realize thats exactly the feeling around.. that of missing him. Even though its the same me who gets irritated when he throws his laptop bag, the shoes, the belt, the wallet, ah.. i mean everything around.. when he is back from work.

Now there was an offsite being planned at work but he didn't want to go.. He thinks it will be better if we both go together to whichever tourist destination it is... Of course that will be great but its also nice to go and enjoy with office gang is what I think. So, I insisted and made him say yes for it. It was also because I got a feeling that his backing out made some of his friends also decide against going and that would have been unfair... Hope they enjoy next few days with some interesting activities. This is definitely going to be the highlight.. provided the video has not scared him already..

While friends 'a', 'b' and 'c' suggested I come to their place if I am scared or get bored or just to spend time with them, i thought i will be good lazying around at home. Its not being rude, i hope. I might meet them in the coming days as Amit is back only on Sunday morning.. anyways, then suddenly the thought of not having met another friend 'd' ever since I moved to dubai came haunting and I think I will go to meet her tomorrow.. Lets see..

As for spending the evening is concerned, there is cozy soft light in the room, some nice instrumental music playing on and I am off to read a book I am half way through.. before that, lemme raid the fridge for some salad and make myself a mocktail.. howzzat?

Nope: I am not missing anybody .. :(