Ki to Health

Oh sigh, if there was a key to health, I would have trotted off to wherever it could be found and brought it to my kiddos, who, like a lot of kiddos I know are not dealing well with the cocktail of changing weather, diwali, and polluted and dusty Gurgaon that they're having to face these days. Then perhaps I would take my head out of my impressive collection of fever, cough, cold, and allergy medicines and my neglected little blog would come back to life.

I have however, been wanting to post quickly about Ki to Health, which is a store in Galleria (on the first floor) that sells homeopathic medicines and a lot of other organic and healthy food stuff like amla murabba, aloe vera juice, organic dals, etc. It's a small little place but seems to have a great stock of things. I normally go in there to get things like Calcarea Phosph to help with my daughter's teething but come away with a bag full of stuff that allows me to think I'm making healthy choices for my family for the next few days:-). So if you've been looking for some specific homeopathic or biochemic mixture or would just like to stock up on natural immunity building stuff, that's your store.

Must be off now - for now the key to health is just this tired old mommy who is on call at the moment:-)

Ear piercing madness

As some of you may know, I recently had a baby girl. One of my big dreams when I was expecting, and hoping like crazy for it to be a girl, was to get her ears pierced and buy tiny little diamond dots for her chubby little ears (and maybe a couple of diamonds for myself too, while I was at it:-). Turns out, this thing we girls take for granted is not as easy as one might think. First, you have to convince your husband that getting ears pierced is not the same as major surgery, that all girls and many boys get it done, and that we'll all survive it. How this is done is another story for another day. Let's just say he wasn't happy about it, but he went along with me!
Next, you have to find someone willing to do it. Again, not easy. I called Sitaram Bhartia in Galleria. They don't do it. Then I called an ENT specialist at Paras. He does it, but I didn't like him, so I didn't want him to. Then, I called Tanishq at the Gold Souk. They don't do it, and they said they didn't think anyone at the Gold Souk would do it, and they would recommend I go to a doctor. Then, I called Max a million times before they finally figured out what I wanted and managed to get the info that there's one pediatrician (Dr. Babita Jain) who does ear piercings and gave me an appointment. Phew.
The doc turned out to be very friendly and nice and my little girl's ears are doing great. However, that's not really what this post is about. Think of this post as a continuation of my recent rant about how expensive things are in Gurgaon. I was stupid enough not to check how much this 3 minute procedure of getting two holes pierced in my daughter's ears would cost before I actually got it done. I just figured it would be a few hundred bucks at the very most. I really should have checked, because we ended up getting a bill of Rs. 4000 for the job - 2000 bucks per piercing. Add to this the 500 bucks we had to pay for the doc's OPD fee. Can you beat it?! I was reminded of the fact that my gynae's surgery fee for doing my entire C-Section and bringing my little one into the world safely was about 12000 bucks - only three times as much as this procedure. And she didn't even charge extra for all the piercings she had to do while stitching me up!
Looks like those diamond dots aren't going to happen for now, since Max took away a lot of the money that was going to pay for those.
By the way, if you've actually managed to get this done cheaper and as safely in Gurgaon, I'd really appreciate info on it. You know, just to help me feel a little more silly for choosing the most expensive option as always:-)

How much is your haircut?

Allow me a little rant here please. I don't know if it's because people think that Gurgaon residents are all young "MNC" employees, DINKs or whatever other acronym suits a majority of us and therefore super rich, or because they think we're just stupid, but things here are just too expensive.

My husband and I were in Galleria recently looking for a place to get a haircut for him and for our two year old. We went to some random place (I forget what it was called), but they had several people in queue. So we walked around and eventually stumbled into Habib's. Guess how much they charge for a men's haircut? 450!!! What the hell? I'm a girl and I've barely ever paid that much even for my haircut, and when I did pay 450, it was for the super luxury of the place, and not for a shabby place like this particular Habib's. Anyway, I digress....guess how much they wanted for my two year old boy's haircut? 250!! His head is the size of a tiny melon right now...how much hair could it have on it to warrant that kind of a rate? Anyway, by the time we found out what they charge, my husband had already been seated for his "free" shampoo along with the haircut. I'm not even embarassed to tell you that we got up and left when we found out how much it cost even though they had already started! And you should have seen the expression on my face when the guy told me the haircut cost 450. It was really priceless even if I do say so myself!
Anyway, we eventually ended up finding another local men's parlor in South City II, close to where we live, and guess how much they charge? Rs. 30. That's it. Fair and square. It takes 5 minutes, they take 30 bucks, they're happy we're happy. Can you imagine the difference in the two rates though? What the hell do the Habib's people DO to your hair to make them feel justified in charging 15 times as much as a regular place? Obviously there is some difference in the level of service and pampering, and of course the brandname, but none of this makes them worth 15 times as much. I know I waste a lot of money and end up paying more for everything a lot of times, but this one somehow touched a nerve and made me think enough is enough already.

So for the last two days, I've been feeling really happy about the hundreds of rupees we saved on those two haircuts and also really motivated to hunt out cheaper places for everyday things rather than running off to the malls for stuff.
Anyway, thanks for listening to this rant and do let me know if you feel the same way.

"Big" School Admissions in Gurgaon

My son's preschool did a session on tackling big school admissions for kids recently. I went to listen to what was going on even though my son isn't due to go to big school for another year. The hype around the admissions process is such that even parents like me who never worried about their own school or university admissions are already a little nervous about that interview in 2011! So anyway, I thought I'd share some of the stuff I learnt yesterday.

Getting started:

• The first thing you need to know is whether your child is eligible for admission this year. The Gurgaon rule is that your child needs to have turned 3 on or before 30th of September this year (2009) to be eligible for admission into the next session, which begins on 1st April 2010. Another way to calculate is that your child should be exactly 3 years and 6 months or more when he or she starts school, that is, on the 1st of April 2010.
• If this is the right time, the first thing you'd need to do as parents is choose the schools you'd like to apply to. Pick carefully as per the philosophy of the school because if that doesn't match with yours in general, you probably won't be happy with the school once your kid starts going there. So Pathways, for example might be a "good" school, but if you're not keen on exposing your child to a very rich (I mean money rich) school atmosphere, you probably won't like it no matter what their syllabus or how good their teachers.
• Visit the schools, preferably with your child to get a sense of the place and also to get your kid a little familiar with the environment. This will help when you get to the interview stage because your child won't be in a completely new place on that day. If you have a toddler, you know why this is important!
• Pick at least 4 schools to apply to. More is better. Don't take chances and don't count on your contacts to get your kid into school. If they fail to do so, you're stuck. So have backups.

Application forms

• Make sure you don't miss the forms when they come out because chances are the window of time to submit completed forms won't me much - sometimes just a week or so. Keep checking the school websites for updates.
• When you start filling out the forms, fill in a photocopy first so you get your spacing nice and your final form is legible and neat.
• Make sure your form is complete. Even if you have nothing to say, write N/A, or mark that field with an X. The first screening of forms is typically just for completeness. You don't want to get kicked out at this stage.
• Make a photocopy of your final form before submitting it for future reference.
• Be honest on the form. You'll probably get questioned on similar lines at the interview. So, if you're honest, at least your stories will match!
• If both parents are around, try to fill the form together so you both know what you're saying and why. It won't look good at the interview if your stories don't match.

The Interview

• Don't stress.
• Don't tell your child he or she is going for some sort of evaluation or test or interview. Instead, it might help to say you're going to check out the school and meet some people there. It will help for the child to think he or she is making the decision.
• What they're probably looking for from the child at the interview is not how much he or she knows but how she reacts to things and more importantly, how you react to her. They're just trying to match philosophies, so if you respond to your child in a particular way when she is asked a question, or if she throws a tantrum, or refuses to interact with the teacher, that tells them a lot. So again, it's probably best to be your natural self.
• The time of the interview will matter. For example, if it's nap time for your kid, expect it to be a little difficult and try to manage that beforehand by making sure he or she gets some rest and is at least well fed and calm.

I think this is more or less it. If you're going to be tackling school admissions this year, good luck and I hope you find something you like. Also, if you have experiences to share, I'm sure we'd all appreciate that a lot:-)

New Intellitots Center at Nirvana Country

A while ago, I had written about the Intellitots Early Learning Center, located near Galleria in DLF Phase IV, Gurgaon. They offer several different activities for kids beginning 6 months to about 6 years in age. These range from parent-infant and parent-toddler programs to speech and drama for older kids. I just found out that they're opening another center soon. This will be located at the Shalom Hills School in Nirvana Country, Sector 50, Gurgaon. To kick things off, they're holding a free parent-toddler workshop for 1-2 year old kids on the 2nd of August, Sunday, 10:00 am - 12:00 noon. Their regular programs will kickoff after that, from the 3rd of August.

If you're looking for an activity place for your little one as well as a little social time with other young moms (they don't offer that but I know I made a lot of friends when I used to take my son to Jimmy's classes!), I'd recommend you pay this place a visit. The Intellitots website is http://intellitots.in/ and their number is 9990800892.

Terrible experience on Gurgaon road

My husband was driving on the road that goes past Ardee City (Gates 1 and 2) all the way past Scottish High school and hits the new road that connects Sohna Road to Sector 56 in the evening yesterday. There's a market complex called Hongkong Bazaar a little past Scottish High on this road. As he was driving by this place, he heard a small bump on his car and then saw two men on bikes yelling at him and gesturing that he should stop. Well, he stopped and got out of the car, upon which one of the men started yelling abuses at my husband and accusing him of having hit his bike. Even the other guy on the second bike said he had stopped because he heard a "very loud" bump and thought someone was hurt. They both got extremely loud and abusive and demanded that my husband pay them Rs. 2000 as compensation for his bike which was now broken. When my husband tried to calm them down and pointed out that there absolutely no damage, and that even his car didn't even have a scratch, they pointed to some minor damage to the bike and brought the demand down to Rs. 1200. Since the place was very deserted and the men were very rude and bordering on being violent, my husband wisely decided to simply pay the guys and move away from there.

This is obviously a scam. These guys must be putting up this show several times a day and making money from people similarly wary about their own security and cautioned by the horrible news one reads so often about crime in the city. I've had a terrible taste in my mouth since I heard of this experience last night.

So, fellow Gurgaon survivors, please be careful when you're out, especially on roads that are deserted such as this one. Would also like to hear your thoughts on how one should deal with a situation such as this one.

Beauty Parlors in Gurgaon

So, as you may have noticed, I’ve been out of circulation for a while now. My friend Divya, who has been a Gurgaon resident for many years and has moved away just last month was nice enough to guest write a review of some of the beauty parlors in Gurgaon for this blog (thanks a tonne, Divya!) Here’s what she has to say.

A beauty parlour is an essential for most women (will all male readers please excuse this observation!) and finding the right one can be on one’s wish-list for a while. As for me, I ‘almost’ found one many times but something or the other put me off it. I have recently started going to External Affaires in the Main Sector 14 market. It came highly recommended by a good friend who loves a good eyebrow. As a lot of women will agree, the criteria for a good parlour is how well they can sculpt your brow and take you from Ugly Betty to…well…whoever you want to be! My hunt for the perfect parlour followed the same rule so though there have been other reasons why I might have changed parlours, the brow would be the key!

For those trying to find a parlour with the right combination of services, price and time taken, I have tried to put together a quick list of the ones I have frequented in Gurgaon

The first one is Fairy, located in the main Sector 14 market. They have all the standard services and also offer a range of hair treatments including a hair spa, coloring, and dying. In fact, if you have special requirements, they even call specialists for the job. This was my first parlor in Gurgaon and has been around for 20 odd years. The owner is a really nice lady who has the most amazing management skills. Some other points about this place:

• All their services are well delivered
• I would rate the quality of their services as good
• They’re optimally priced
• The place is extremely crowded with waiting times anywhere from 10 minutes to 1 hour. So it’s a good idea to go with a prior appointment
• It’s very noisy, so you can forget about trying to relax during a massage or a facial
• Only the owner does haircuts, which means you have to wait a lot for a haircut

The second parlor on the list is Occasions, located in Southcity 2, B block market. They offer all the standard parlor services. I moved to this parlor when Fairy in Sector 14 became too far to go. It’s small and personalized and they do a good job with the standard services. Also, it’s optimally priced. Some problems with the place:

• It’s really small so it can get uncomfortable if you’re there for a longish time
• It’s noisy so the relaxation factor is nil
• Their haircuts are not great
• They burnt my leg when waxing so you have to keep an eye out for the wax temperature
• Their massages leave a lot to be desired

So, all in all this is a decent place for some of the small and regular stuff you need to get done, but not so much for a full once over!

The next parlor on my list is Beauty Lounge in DLF Phase 3, next to the restaurant Italianos. This is a unisex place with separate areas for men and women. This one came highly recommended by friend so I went there despite the distance from my place. Though they have a decent range of services and a nice comfy setup, I’m terribly disappointed with this place because of their staff. One of their male staff really crossed the line by first trying to have an inappropriate conversation with me and hinting at “extra” services he could offer and then actually feeling me up while giving me a pedicure.

Obviously, I will go out of my way to dissuade people from taking themselves and their business to Beauty Lounge.

Finally, there’s Tangles, which is in the Malibu Shopping Plaza in Malibu Towne, Sohna Road. They offer all standard services as well as a hair spa with repair and treatment. This is a really nice place which offers very good hair services, especially haircuts. The ambience is also very comfortable. However, it is overpriced. I paid Rs. 280 to get my 6 year old daughter’s hair trimmed!

So that’s the list. Thanks again for the review Divya!

My personal favourite place to go has always been Finesse in DT Mega Mall close to the Bristol roundabout. I’ve been going there for almost 4 years now and haven’t been disappointed. It’s quite comfortable and relaxing though a little overpriced. I go there anyway though because they’re really clean and their staff is very friendly, courteous, and for the most part, quite competent. The biggest reason I go out of my way to go there is because there’s a lady there who does my eyebrows really well! (Have to agree with Divya on this one!).

Another place that I haven’t visited too many times, but really liked is Bella Madonna in the Galleria building, attached to the Galleria market in DLF Phase IV. The place is super swanky, very clean, and very comfortable. They actually sat me down on a massage chair while shampooing my hair…how’s that for pampering! Obviously, this comes at a price…the place is quite expensive. Though I’ve only gone there for haircuts, I did look at their card and they seemed to have a wide range of services. By the way, there’s a guy called Satyaveer who does really good haircuts. So ask for him if you go there!

As always, I would love to hear your comments, experiences, and feedback.