What does introversion feel like

Imagine, you were living a world where some people couldn't function unless they held someone else's hand. It's not like they couldn't  do anything without holding hands. It's just that if they went for more than 20 minutes without holding hands, they feel very uncomfortable. Now, imagine being a world where most people were hand-holders, and you weren't. 

The whole world would be designed for people walking holding hands. Whenever you went to a meeting, you would be expected to half hands with the person next to you. You don't want to. But you do, just to make he other person comfortable. You go back to your cubicle, but wait, you don't sit in your cubicle yourself. You share your cubicle with a person with who. You hold hands with. So, you hold his hand, and you go about your work. Then you leave work, catch the train, sit on a seat. The person next to you gives you her hand. Fine! You'll hold her hand. You reach home. You greet your wife. She wants to hold your hand too. You tell her "honey, I just came back from work. I've been holding hands all day. Can I hold a cup of coffee for 20 minutes before I hold your hand?" She loves you, and know what you are. An intro-holder. She accepts you for who you are, but wonders if things would have been different had she married an extra-holder. Later on the weekend, she says "my friend has invited us to a hand holding party at 1:30" "do I have to go? Why can't you go alone" "no it will be awkward. I will be the 3rd wheel" so you go with her because you care about her, and after she puts up with your intro-holdiness the least you could do is go to a party once in a while. At the party, you hold other people's hand and you notice another person who looks uncomfortable holding hands. You nod at him, thinking "I know how it feels" and hoping that you could project your thoughts into him. He nods back, and you think you did. 

One day you might get a new cubicle partner, and you hold his hand, and you notice he isn't into it like other people. You leave his hand. He doesn't try to hold it back. And you just leave it at that. You go about doing your work, and both of you don't let anyone outside your cubicle know that you don't hold hands. Eventually, you do good at work, and you realize that you not holding people's hands is holding you back at work. You read books on how to be a better hand holder,  and you try and you get good at holding hands. Your coworkers can't believe that you are an intro-holder. After all, you have nothing against holding hands. You just don't want to do it all day!

That's what introversion feels like.  Introverts are basically people who can go about their day without having the need to talk to someone every 20 minutes or so. It's not like we hate talking to people. We just don't want to do it all day!

Mannu's assorted photos

Here are some of Mannu's photos from his day to day life

Mannu and Sasha

So soft

Soooo soft

In the playground with Mommy

Love my mommy

Mannu and daddy

Whee! I can slide all day

Mannu was a baby once and used to eat on highchair. No highchair anymore

Now I sit on the chair and eat waffles all by myself

Trying to blow out candles on 3rd birthday

3rd birthday

3rd birthday

Looking cute in my vest

Getting messy with jam

More messy

Fire truck

Slide

Daddy and Mannu

Mommy and Mannu

2009 halloween - Ninja costume

Everybody loves kung fu fighting..

Schoolbus. going to Buzz aldrin

Daddy's birthday - June 2009. That's Baba (daddy's daddy) and Ami (Daddy's mommy). His name is Ashok. Her name is Seema

Ami, Baba and Mannu

DC national zoo, Mannu, daddy, ami and baba

DC national zoo, Mannu, daddy, ami and baba

Ami caught Mannu

Sasha loves Mannu since he was a baby. Here she is watching over him

Sasha watching Mannu

This is when we realized Mannu was autistic. He made this spontaneously without any instruction. We left him in his room and 20 mins later found him working with this

Looking upto Daddy

Mannu, mommy and daddy

Nico and Sasha having a nap

Kitty cuddles

 

 

 

 

Latest pictures

Swimming, swimming

in the swimming hole

days are hot, days are cold

in the swimming hole

side stroke, back stroke

fancy diving too.... Daddy is right outside the frame, but you can see he feels comfortable enough to leave daddy

Berry coffee cake

I made this coffee cake using the same berries as in the Berry compote recipe. Instant hit with the family. We finished about 1/3 of it already. This recipe is basically adapted from another Berry coffee cake recipe from the Bread Bible. There were few changes that I wanted to do





a) I want to put fresh fruit, and I want to be able to taste the texture of the fruit:- so I want whole fresh berries in the cake
b) the fruit shouldn't change the texture of the cake:- the problem with putting whole berries in any cake is that while the cake bakes, the berries explode while the cake is baking. So, this changes the consistency of the cake around the explosion, which makes that part soggy. Usually, it's fine. You just bake it a little longer, but the other parts are dry
c) I want to put lots and lots of fruit:- The problem with increasing the fruit is again more uncontrolled liquid seeping from the fruit into the cake, which makes it more soggy

Recipe is after the jump, but if you aren't bored yet, here's a somewhat technical explanation on how I got all of this done

So, to solve that problem, I had to take the juice out of the fruit without changing the texture of the fruit and also soften the fruit before it goes in so it doesn't explode. Sure, I could have just mashed the berries to extract the juice, but that would have changes the texture of the fruit too much. Besides, I have never tried to juice strawberries. Instead, I used a process called maceration. No, I didn't make the fruit dance and sing "Hey Macerena!" Maceration is a process by which you soften the texture of the fruit using it own's juices. You coat the fruit with sugar and put it in a wire mesh. The sugar sucks the juice out of the fruit and the juice gets filtered by the wire mesh. The process needs time and temperature to work. If your fruit is right out of the fridge , it will take longer than if it was at room temp.

Berry Compote

A Compote is a dish made by by boiling fruit in sweetened water. This dish can be made with almost any fruit, and is quite easy to make. The dish preserves the natural flavor of the fruit used, so it can be served whenever you serve fruit. It is usually served along with pancakes, waffles, but can accompany almost any baked good. My wife sometimes has compote with just bread, and I like to put to replace the Jelly in a Peanut-Butter-Jelly sandwich with compote. This dish is also good for extending the life of fruit that is starting to go bad. You got some good fruit that no one is eating, just throw them all together and make something different. You can mix any types of fruit in there (and even add dried fruit if you wish) Depending on what kinds of fruit you put in, the different flavors can blend together to create a refreshing new taste.

Since, the amount of sweetness in the fruit changes from fruit to fruit and season to season, you are not guaranteed to get the same flavor everytime you make a compote. That's why I tend not to get too concerned about measurements when I make compote.

Recipe after the jump

Sunday morning musings

Why do multiple bulbs burn out at the same time? It seems like if bulbs that came from the same box, and were put in the socket together burn out within days of each other. Are there bulb gremlins in my house? Or are the bulbs made so precisely that they fail exactly together


Why does my kid jump on my stomach? It hurts. Why don't I feel like stopping him? Is it karma for jumping on my parent's stomach? Is this why I have a big belly? Is his son going to jump on him? Are we stuck in an endless cycle of being jumped on by our kids? Is this hell? Why does it feel like heaven?

The temperature inside the house is 68 F. The temperature outside is 35 F. Windows are made of glass. There is a 33F differrence between the outside and inside of each window pane. Does the glass contract on the outside? Does the glass curve? Why doesn't it break? At what temperature will it break? Surely there is someone who has tested the glass to check at what temperature it will shatter.