Credit Scores Primer

 I had started what I envisioned as a series on financial literacy back in October of last year, when I wrote about credit cards. The target audience was my kids - primarily my daughter, who, much to my surprise, is a full-fledged adult now. To her er..credit, she did not prod me for the next installment, so I thought I’d surprise her with one today.

This post is about credit scores, another vital factor in understanding your financial health. The same caveat as before applies: I am not a finance professional, and none of this should be taken as financial advice. Everything on these pages can be found across hundreds of thousands of blogs, TikToks, and books - there’s zero original content here, just a father's curated version.

What is a Credit Score?

 

The best way to think of a credit score is as a financial GPA, one that changes over time just as your grades did at school. It is essentially a three-digit number representing your creditworthiness. It serves as shorthand for lenders (banks, credit card companies, and even landlords) to assess the risk of lending you money. The higher the score, which typically ranges from 300 to 850, the more trustworthy you appear to the financial system.

The score isn’t just for loans, either. A strong rating is often a prerequisite for renting an apartment; landlords use it to gauge the likelihood of rent being paid consistently. You might have seen this as a new college graduate where a landlord asks for a guarantor (usually a parent) if your score isn't established yet. Some utility and cell phone providers will even waive security deposits if your history is excellent.

In the long term, the primary advantage is securing lower interest rates. The difference between Poor and Excellent tiers can be massive. Over the life of a mortgage or car loan, a high score can save you tens of thousands of dollars in interest.

Who creates these scores?

 A credit score is not generated by a single entity, but rather by a combination of data collection agencies who deal with specialized mathematical models. In the United States, three major national credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion - are responsible for gathering data on consumer financial behavior. These companies collect information from lenders, utility companies, and your public records to create a report, which is a detailed history of your financial activity. If it sounds a bit creepy, that's because it is. Your data is definitely out there and it is being used to rate you, whether you like it or not. However, understanding this is critical for you to see how to use it to your advantage,

Now while the above bureaus hold the data, they do not create the score itself. That task typically falls to the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO), or VantageScore. These companies use proprietary algorithms to analyze the data provided by the bureaus and distill it into the three-digit number that's your score. As each bureau may have slightly different information, and lenders may use different versions of the FICO or VantageScore models, it could happen that you might have different scores depending on which source is being consulted. I remember when I was looking at a car loan and was happy with my FICO score (used by most lenders) but surprised when the car dealership checked my Vantagescore, which was a bit lower. From what I understood, the Vantagescore tracks trends better, which some lenders like to check.

How do you find your score?

The easiest way to find your score is to check your bank or credit card app. Most institutions provide a free credit score feature within their app, which is updated monthly and free to view. Some of them offer a bit of detail, which can help you identify areas to improve your score.

You also have third-party services like Credit Karma which provide free access to scores and offer simulation tools which you can use to run what-if scenarios. Be warned though that these services are quite spammy, and will offer you up-sell products (like tax software or high interest loans). They need to make a profit too!

A third option is to check AnnualCreditReport, a free credit report service from the three credit bureaus I listed above. They are required by federal law to provide every consumer a free copy of their credit report each year, but these agencies now provide it weekly. The catch is that they do not give you a free score, just the underlying data that is used to generate your score (FICO or Vantage).

Regularly checking your score is a key part of your financial hygiene. You can use it not just to prepare for a loan, but to check against identity theft or reporting errors. You could have a scenario where a bad actor has used your Social Security Number, or maybe a financial institution still shows a paid-off loan as an open debt. These things happen a lot in real life, so it's up to us to be on the lookout.

What factors into a score?

 Your credit score is built from several distinct categories of financial behavior, each carrying different weight. The most significant component is your payment history, which accounts for 35% of the total score. This metric tracks whether your bills were paid on time. Even a single missed payment can have a disproportionate negative impact, while a long history of timely payments provides the strongest possible foundation for a high score.

The second most influential factor is your credit utilization, making up 30% of the score. This is the ratio of your outstanding balances to your total available credit limits. For example, if your credit card has a limit of $1000 and the amount you owe is $300, the utilization is 30%. Experts generally recommend keeping this ratio below 30%, as high utilization can signal financial distress. As I mentioned in the post about credit cards, always try and pay off your credit card statement by the due date for the full amount.

Other contributing factors include the length of credit history (15%), which rewards those who have maintained accounts over many years, and the credit mix (10%), which considers the variety of accounts held. Your credit cards, student loans, auto and home loans contribute to this mix. Finally, your new credit (10%) looks at how many new accounts have been opened recently. Frequent applications for new credit can lead to what are called 'hard inquiries', which may temporarily lower a score. Some institutions like American Express do a 'soft pull' when you apply for an additional card, but most applications will lead to a hard inquiry.

How do you improve your score?

To use a cliche, improving your credit score is a marathon rather than a sprint. The most effective strategy is the consistent use of automation to ensure no payment is ever missed. You absolutely need to setup autopay for every credit card statement or loan repayment from your bank account. Building a good credit file involves maintaining older accounts and using them occasionally for small, manageable purchases that are paid off in full each month. This demonstrates to lenders that credit can be managed responsibly without accruing unnecessary debt.

Monitoring the score is equally important. Checking your own score, like the soft inquiry I mentioned above, does not affect your rating and can be done through most banking apps or through the agencies discussed earlier.

Ultimately, maintaining a healthy score is about demonstrating reliability and restraint. By keeping balances low and paying bills on time, you'll build a rating that provides you with flexibility and savings for decades to come. Onward!

All About Credit Cards

Who this is for 

A recent poll conducted by NEFE shows that four out of five adults in the US wish they were required to complete a personal finance class while they were in school. My daughter, who graduated college a few months ago, is one of them. We discuss personal finance a lot when we meet, with topics ranging from investing in the stock market to taxes to credit cards to why she wasn't born rich. Not that I'm an expert, but I've learned from my many mistakes (see why she wasn't born rich). There's nothing I'd like more than to help provide a foundation of financial literacy for her. I'd love for her to stand on her own feet making thoughtful decisions about managing her money, and not be reliant on anyone else. This is true for my son too by the way, but he's been interested in this space the past couple of years, learning quite rapidly on his own.

So, with that said, I intend to write a few posts covering various topics related to personal finance in the US. The caveat is that I am not a finance professional and none of this should be taken as financial advice. Everything on these pages can be found across hundreds of thousands of blogs, tiktoks, videos, and books - there's zero original content. My target audience is just one person, and I hope this is helpful to her.

Let's start with credit cards. Those pieces of plastic that people whip out at restaurants, or use on their phones when checking out at grocery stores.

What is a credit card anyway?

 A credit is when you receive a product or a service which you plan to pay for later. In this case the product is money, and the way you get it is through a credit card. Think of it as a loan you get from a financial institution. Instead of paying for things directly with money from your bank account, you're borrowing money from the credit card company, which you agree to pay back in time. 

A big benefit of using a credit card over a debit card is that you pay for your purchase much later. Your money continues to remain in your bank accumulating interest until your statement due date. With a debit card, you pay for your purchase instantaneously. I cannot remember the last time I used my debit card for a purchase, honestly.

How credit cards work

When you use a credit card to make a purchase, the credit card company pays the merchant on your behalf. This creates a balance on your credit card statement: the amount you owe, usually the total cost of the items you purchased. At the end of a billing cycle (typically once a month), you'll receive a statement showing all your purchases, the total amount you owe, and a minimum payment due. This statement will have a due date, which is the last day to pay off the amount before accumulating interest. 

Let's go with a made-up example. You used the credit card for a month at a few merchants and got a statement at the end of the month for $100, with a minimum amount of $10 owed by Nov 10. Now the best thing to do is to pay off the entire amount of $100 by Nov 10 so that you can avoid interest charges. If you do not have the $100 by Nov 10 then the next best thing to do is to pay the maximum amount you can afford, thereby reducing your outstanding balance. Interest rates, or Annual Percentage Rates (APR), on credit card debt are incredibly high, ranging from 17% to 29% or more.

Paying the minimum balance is not the worst thing you can do, by the way. The worst thing is not paying anything at all. Not only will you incur higher interest rates on your outstanding amount, you'll have to pay late fees as well. Stick to paying the entire billed amount every cycle and you will be fine.

Most credit cards have a credit limit associated with your account. Banks decide this based on your credit worthiness which takes into account your credit score (more on this in a later post), your payment history, credit history, and credit utilization - the amount of credit you are currently utilizing compared to your total credit available. Another factor is your ability to repay, which is mostly determined by your income. Beginners or students with limited credit history may have a low credit limit (say $1000), but this will increase as you use your card, make regular payments, and add to your income.

Credit card fees

 Some credit cards charge an annual fee for their usage. These cards would have additional perks which to some may justify their high fees. I spend $325 per year to use the American Express Gold card for instance. I do this because I value travel points (see below for details) a lot more than cash back, and the Amex Gold gives me 4 points for every dollar I spend at restaurants and grocery stores. For example, a grocery run at Roche Brothers that costs $50 gets me 200 Amex points, which I can transfer to airlines and get at least a $2 discount on travel tickets. 

Now I realize $2 doesn't seem like much but this spend adds up quickly, giving me fairly significant discounts when I book travel. Amex Gold also gives me $10 a month as Uber cash which I can use for rides or ordering through Uber Eats. They give an additional $10 a month on Grubhub as well, which we use quite often. You can likewise get an $84 annual credit for spending at Dunkin' and another $100 credit for eating out at Resy restaurants. So if you make use of the full amount of all these credits, you'll pick up $424 worth of value, completely covering the annual fee. I confess I don't use Dunkin' but I do use most of the rest, plus the discount on travel, which makes this card worth it for me. That said, I don't think this is a card for beginners, and I would advise picking cards without annual fees and give cash back when you are just starting off. 

Some banks charge a foreign transaction fee if you use the card outside the US, by the way. I personally think this is an outdated system, and there are plenty of institutions that provide cards without annual and foreign transaction fees, and offer cash back points and other perks as well.

Credit card rewards

Many credit cards offer rewards to encourage you to use them. These rewards can be a great way to get extra value from your spending. The typical rewards are:

• Sign-Up Bonuses: These are rewards you get for meeting certain spending requirements within a specific time-frame after opening a new card. For example, "Spend $500 in the first three months and get 20,000 bonus points." I have obtained significant sign-up bonuses by opening new cards, which I've redeemed for either cash or miles with airlines. 
• There is a catch here though: some financial institutions track the number of credit cards you've opened in a two year period, and if it's more than five, they are likely to deny your application. They do this to reduce credit card churning, where you open multiple cards just for the sign-up bonus and don't use them later. Chase has an unwritten rule, widely referred to as 5/24, which does exactly that: they will deny your application if you have opened more than 5 credit cards in the past 24 months.
• Cash Back Points: With cash back cards, you earn a percentage of your spending back as cash. This might be a flat rate (say 1.5% on all purchases) or higher percentages in specific spending categories (eg: 5% on groceries, 2% on gas). You can usually redeem these as a statement credit, direct deposit, or as gift cards. This is extremely useful when you are just out of college and starting your career, as you'd usually want to make every dollar stretch as much as possible. So if your credit card bill was $100 and you've accumulated 500 points as cash back, you would owe them just $95 as each point is valued at 1c. You should be able to do this on your credit card app or on their website fairly easily.
• Travel Points/Miles: These cards earn points or miles that can be redeemed for travel, such as flights, hotel stays, or car rentals. The value of these points can vary depending on the card and how you redeem them. Some cards like my American Express Platinum offer 5x points on travel-related purchases. So if I book a $500 travel on say Delta Airlines using my Amex Platinum, I get 2500 points in my Amex account, which I can redeem for at least 2500 miles which usually converts to a minimum of $25 reduction from my next booking.
• The way to do this is to transfer your Amex points to the airline of your choice. You will need to have a frequent flier account with that airline, and choose that airline as your transfer partner in Amex. Let's say you frequent Delta, and you have 20,000 points in your Amex account. You can transfer this 20,000 to Delta, which almost always shows up right away in your Delta account, which you can redeem for your next flight ticket purchase. 
• Other Perks: Most credit cards have a lot of additional perks, which can come in handy. They include travel related perks such as insurance and roadside assistance, vehicle rental coverage, concierge services, events access, special discounts, cellphone insurance, etc. While you don't want to pick up a credit card just for these perks alone, they definitely don't hurt. What's usually not listed is the benefit of getting extra days to make your payment. That $100 purchase won't hit your bank account right away, unlike using your debit card or Venmo/PayPal. Your money stays in your bank gathering interest until the credit card statement due date.

How to pick the right card

 As with anything, you need to decide what works best for you. At an early stage, I'd argue going for a card without annual fees would work best, particularly one that provides a good cash back rate. If you value travel a lot, then you can look for a card which gives you 2 to 3x travel points for every dollar spent, ideally with zero annual fees or with low fees which you feel confident about recovering through their reward programs. You should also look for sign up bonuses, which offer you say 50,000 miles if you sign up and spend $5000 in the first three months. Remember, you can sign up for more than one card if you like!

Another factor to consider is the ecosystem you'd want to be part of, if you really think long term and want to maximize your points. The American Express cards operate slightly differently compared to the Capital One cards, which are again a bit different from the Chase credit card family. Most of these differences are in their travel and hotel partners, and in how you accumulate points. For instance, accumulating points from the Capital One Venture X card is drop-dead simple: any transaction anywhere gets you 2x points. On the other hand, Amex Platinum gives you 5x only when you use the card on the airlines they support, and nowhere else. You get just 1 point per dollar if you use the Amex for a shoe purchase, for instance. 

I've avoided adding details about backend payment processors like Visa and Mastercard, as there's little to differentiate between the two. They provide payment rails for credit cards like Capital One, Chase, et al. You would rarely need to factor those into your decision around picking the right credit card. Be aware though that while these two heavyweights are usually accepted anywhere in the world, others like Amex and Discover are not. That small restaurant in Kerala might take your Capital One Savor Visa card, but is highly unlikely to accept the American Express Gold.

There are lots of resources out there which explains the pros and cons of each ecosystem so you can make an informed decision.

What to watch out for

The main drawbacks of credit cards are pretty much what you'd imagine: high-interest rates and fees, the temptation to overspend and accumulate debt, and the potential to damage your credit score if not managed carefully. You also run the risk of fraud and identity theft, which is not uncommon these days. 

Regularly check your credit card statements for unknown expenses, no matter how small. Some fraudsters who've gotten access to your card start off with small purchases for a dollar or two, testing out the waters before buying an 85" OLED TV and the latest PlayStation.

You can set up transaction alerts so anything above a certain amount will be flagged right away. The usual caveats around security apply here too: never share your password or PIN, be cautious of emails or texts asking for information, avoid clicking on links from unknown senders, etc. Adding your physical card to your mobile wallet adds an extra layer of security as well. 

What I use

I'm on the Amex ecosystem primarily, though I made the mistake of signing up for the Platinum first, which prevented me from getting a signup bonus for the Gold card. If I had to do it over, I'd start with the Blue Cash Preferred, then get a sign up bonus to upgrade to the Gold, and then get another to upgrade to the Plat. However, I like this ecosystem mainly because of the travel that I do every year, as Amex provides access to a lot of lounges. They also automatically give you Gold status at Marriott, Hertz, and a few other places. In addition to a lot of other rewards and perks, of course.

I like Capital One too, and am an authorized user of my wife's Venture X card. This is a really simple card to earn points with, and their annual fee of $395 pretty much pays for itself with their $300 travel discount and other rewards.

We also use the Chase Amazon credit card that offers 5%+ discounts on all purchases at Amazon, which add up pretty fast. This card does not have an annual fee and has zero foreign transaction fees as well, which makes it a no-brainer to get if you are a heavy user of Amazon.

I have a few other cards too, most of which were obtained for signup bonuses or as part of other investments, which I do not use as regularly as the above set (eg: the Robinhood gold card). I'm still learning though, and there are new cards and updates pretty much every year that keep me on my toes. 

Happy spending!

San Diego Comic Con 2025

 I checked off two items from my bucket list in the past thirty days: attending San Diego Comic-Con and visiting Scotland. Interestingly, the most common question I got asked about each of these wasn't the reason for my visit, nor was it something I did out there. Most folks who have a peripheral knowledge about Comic-Con ("civilians", as my friend the illustrious Satya calls them) asked who I was going as. Most folks who know one particular thing about Scotland asked which distillery I was visiting. While I wasn't there to cosplay or tour a distillery, both trips were amazing, and I'd love to go back.

 My visit to Comic-Con was all thanks to my buddy Satya, who is well-known to pretty much all the dealers out there, as well as to quite a few of the major artists. There was a long line of people, rivaling the one for George Lucas, waiting to get face time with the illustrious one and I imagine offer him multi-million dollar deals for his prized comic art collection. I had to beat them off with a rolled up poster so that the man could negotiate a copy of the first page art for the comic book you've never heard of but would have watched the movie version. To be fair though, Satya says his collection is small fry compared to those of the passionate folks he hangs out with.

Satya negotiating one of his multi-million dollar deals

 

 So anyway, since I had a dealer pass courtesy Satya's friends, I was able to get in early Wednesday afternoon before the civilian throng arrived. This turned out to be a huge deal, as I could saunter along the entire Con (as we in the industry call it) and look at all the unsullied booths without having to fight through hordes of plant zombies. That said, we were asked to not loiter in front of bigger displays like the Star Wars area or the DC booth, and were specifically told not to buy anything as it would put the general public at a disadvantage. However, that changed from 6pm when the hall was open for preview, and the masses started trundling in.

Alright, about cosplays. Sure enough, they were on full display throughout the Con. People outside the venue without tickets like this guy in a Deadpool costume driving around the block every ten minutes, to Ninja Turtles lining up to enter the venue, to these ladies who were apparently a version of Red Sonja far removed from the Brigitte Nielsen avatar I knew from my childhood. And oh, those plant zombies showed up too.

  You also had the usual bunch of religious folks protesting outside the venue, as comics are obviously bad for you and a sure shot way to get you into hell. This cosplay didn't make me smile as much as the others, strangely enough.

What was the best part of the Con? I'd like to think there were two - first, all the panels I attended were awesome, with some great discussions. I loved listening to these artists talk about their inspirations, their creative processes, what worked and didn't work for them. Their interactions with each other, responses to the audience questions, and just being a regular person geeking out at a convention, happy to be among like-minded souls and interacting with fans made them seem approachable and... human.

Panel with Eddie Campbell, Craig Thompson, Lee Marrs, Thien Pham, etc

Panel with David Dastmalchian, Eric Powell, et al

  I looked up books written by authors I hadn't heard of before, and have been reading them after getting back. I loved Thien Pham's Family Style, and was floored by Harold Schechter & Eric Powell's Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? The movie versions of the Ed Gein story (Psycho, Texas Chainsaw..., etc) pale in comparison to his real life.

 The second highlight was one of the main reasons I attended SDCC: getting to meet some of my favorite artists. I loved taking pictures with them, interacting with them, and getting their books autographed. Some of these were easy enough, but others required spending money AND standing in lines to get a chance at standing in lines to get their signature. 

Lunch with the incredibly talented Craig Thompson of Blankets fame

With Brian K Vaughan, he of Saga, Y: The Last Man, Paper Girls, Runaways & more

Daniel Clowes, creator of Ghost World, Monica, etc 

With the awesome Emil Ferris, of My Favorite Thing Is Monsters

 I didn't tell my kids about this earlier as I wanted to surprise them with the actual signed comics. So getting Brian K Vaughan, Bryan Lee O'Malley, and Neil Druckmann's signatures for Rachu, and the legendary Frank Miller for Karan was absolutely the highlight of my Comic Con.

Neil Druckman

After getting Frank Miller's signature

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life! 

Brian K Vaughan apparently knows me very well

With Tom King, writer of the Vision books and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

Jeph Loeb signing (and doodling) Hush for me

The doodle bit is interesting, as it's an additional little gesture from the artist towards the fan. As I understand it, the vanilla signature on a book is the baseline. Artists often prefer that you ask to make it out to someone, as then the chances of you trying to sell the book with the signature on eBay are low. The next best thing is to get an additional little doodle on the page, which adds pizzazz. You can see some of these in the pics above.

The artist who drew my favorite Alan Moore comic, From Hell, Eddie Campbell

 I got back home with a suitcase full of books, a long list of comics to read, and a heart full of thanks to Satya and his friends, who were kind enough to accommodate a wide-eyed civilian in their midst for a few days at this mecca of geekdom.

A Love Reaction

 What compels me to write? When do I put fingers to the keyboard and start typing with gusto, words flowing out like water bubbling through that broken pipe which you've been meaning to fix but never got around to and now it's too late and your kitchen is flooded and oh, hell. 

When I was young, it was mostly love. The feeling you feel when you are going to feel a feeling you've never felt before. I wrote pages after pages, not necessarily about love but because of it. Because of the high I used to feel after meeting her between scoops of ice cream, meeting her between rows of books, meeting her at bus-stops, walking through narrow streets sprinkled all over that tiny hometown of mine. 

If not love, it was reading. Which is a kind of love too, of course. Love with words, with dialog, with the process of creating worlds which take you away for a few hours. Worlds of horror, of mystery, of intrigue, of castles filled with incredibly funny Earls, secretaries, and butlers. My writing at the time echoed Stephen King, Robert Ludlum, Agatha Christie, Arthur C Clarke, and every Indian english reader's constant source of amusement, PG Wodehouse. It was terrible writing, now that I look back at it, but it flowed. 

It changed later though, after several years. Especially after my daughter was born, which was peak blogging era (LiveJournal, sigh). I wrote about emotions, about her growing up, about what we learned, my wife and I. Strangely enough, my son's birth a few years later was peak social media. It was Facebook, it was Instagram, it was Twitter, and Whatsapp. Which meant I have fewer videos and pics of my daughter compared to my son, but more words for Rachu than Karan. Not quite sure how I feel about that now.

So, what compels me to write? At this age, at this moment, I think it's the opposite of love. Not quite hate, but anger. Bitterness. Sadness. Frustration. With the world, with politics, with the irrationality that surfaces every day. With the unfairness of it all. And the realization that it's here to stay and there's little I can do about it. 

Other than write.

Father's Day

Thirteen. She's thirteen now. I have no idea how she grew up so fast. From that evening when she was born, through her first day at day care, the first time she was injured, her first day of school, her first birthday party, her first movie, book, toy, friend...I remember them all. More firsts await her, await me, as she lives her life.

Lives her life on her terms, making her own choices.

Father's Day wasn't just yesterday. It started thirteen years ago, when she was born. Every day has been special, every day has been this father's day.

Happy birthday, sweetheart.

Back to school

Rachu started 'proper' school today. She's done with the Montessori levels and has entered Std I. I dropped her off to school in the morning; she was dressed in her new uniform, complete with a school belt and tie. Damn, she's growing up faster than I'd want her to.

Kiddie Tales Vol 4

It helps having your parents over to babysit your kid, especially during the long summer holidays. One problem though is that the kid gets influenced quite a bit by the grandparents. Having your child go through the usual Ramayana-as-told-by-grandma routine is to be expected, of course. What one doesn't expect though is to see the kid look at a spoonful of salt and go,"Oh, King Lear!". Not to mention said kid lifting left arm and pointing out,"Biceps, triceps and deltoid!".

Deltoid, indeed.

Rachu

Everyone was interested in watching Rachu's reaction when she saw me after I got back. Whether she'd jump around, yell, be angry, etc.

She was asleep when I reached home - my flight got in at around 4am on Monday. All of us were downstairs, Kichan and Seena about to leave for work, when we heard sounds of her waking up. We all ran up to the bedroom and I lay down beside her. She slowly opened her eyes, looked at me and then said she was hungry. I replied and cuddled up with her. She looked at me again, hugged me tight and started sobbing. Sobbing like an adult, not like a two year old child. Slowly, everyone left the room. I don't remember the last time I felt so depressed.

She still appears to feel I will leave her - started crying when I carried my parents' luggage to the car, thinking I was going too. Cried buckets today when I dropped her at school, something she hasn't done in a long time.

It's not easy being a dad. It's way tougher being a two year old kid.

Baby update

This kid really has an attitude. She is very miserly with her smiles and doles them out only after a lot of coaxing. Picture a visitor looking at her for the first time - typical visitors are female, about 40 and bring dresses as gifts. Said visitor goes :"Rachu baby !! Agoo-goo-goo-gooo !". Our heroine lifts one eyebrow three millimetres and ignores the visitor. The tenacious sort among the visitors repeats the goo-goo routine. Rachu looks at her out of the corner of her eye ('chirayal' in malayalam) and sneers at her. She then turns her head away and mulls over the Kashmir issue. Most people give up at this point.

She can stare at the fan for hours, ruminating over how it works and its place in the grand scheme of things. She would much rather prefer looking at it than at her parents, not to mention friends and relatives. Maybe she will grow up to be an electrician. [insert 'fan' jokes here].

On the other hand, she is happiest in the morning when she wakes up, after her feed. She likes being held close to my body, happy with the warmth and comfort I guess.

Of promotions, houses, boys, office space and baby girls

Sindha got promoted ! There she was, moping around at home post-delivery, wondering if her job would still be there when she returned to the college. Her principal calls up yesterday evening and congratulates her on the delivery, and extends it by saying "I've recommended you for the post of lecturer" ! Now she hasn't yet seen anything in writing and is not very clear on what this 'recommending her' means, but it does look likely that she has been promoted. This is good. This means a bunch of things, the biggest of which is that we don't need to think of returning to Kerala any time soon. All right !

I've given the legal papers of the site to Biju Small, a lawyer friend of mine. The Small is to differentiate him from another Biju, Biju Large. Now Biju Large gets his name not because of his size, but from a term commonly used in relation to measures of alcohol. But I digress

I also plan to show my dad the site and if possible, take an architect friend of his along. If all the above people certify that the property is good, we will go ahead. Should be able to decide in a week or thereabouts.

ARR's Boys is good. It has a very youthful, peppy feel to it. Catchy tunes, cheesy lyrics as always. Then again, I'm getting old.

Two new additions to my divx collection - Raiders of the Lost Ark and Office Space. I haven't seen Office Space yet, but had a peek at the first 10 minutes and liked it. I can see why its supposed to be a modern cult classic (if that phrase exists).

Rachana looks set to be a mimicry artist. She makes all kinds of sounds both asleep and awake. Grunts, sighs, tuneful moans and what have you. She has an interested look on her face when I play music, especially ARR (or so I would like to believe). She also seems to mistake me for the WC; she waits the whole day for me to get home and take her in my arms, especially after I've had a bath and changed into clean clothes. Maybe its my singing to her which does it.

Baby stuff - be warned !

First, thanks a million for all the wishes. Megha seems to be the name of choice for most l-jers. Actually most people I know prefer Megha to Rachana. However...Rachana seems to fit, somehow. Kichan and Sindha have already started referring to her by that name. So even though the jury is still out, inside sources reveal that Rachana Madhav is very likely to be the eventual winner

GK Vale screwed up my photo cd ! The pics arrived as hard copies yesterday but the jpgs cannot be read ("Can't read file header !"). Damn. Need to go shout at them and get this resolved. Too many folks - relatives and friends - waiting for the pics.

The baby wakes up every hour on the dot at nights. Sindha and I are having a lovely time. The sequence goes like this:

1. "Waaa-haa-waaa-haa"
2. Cotton, warm water, new nappies, baby powder.
3. Soiled nappies go into two buckets - one for the ..er..#1 and the other for #2 (or both #1 and #2)
4. Feed starts, wait for some time
5. Burp. Wait. If "Waaa-haa-waaa haaa" then repeat step 4
6. Back in cradle, parents back in bed. zzzz.
7. "Waaa-haa-waaa haaa"...and so on.

I'm back at office, catching up on email and struggling to stay awake.

Crib of the day: Indiatimes hasn't shipped The Book yet. Why am I not surprised ? Sent them a stinker. Maybe I should have gone to fabmart like I used to.

Baby girl !

Sindha delivered a baby girl at 8:15pm on Friday, the 20th of June. Both mom and daughter are doing fine. The daddy, too.

I'll put up a detailed post later - suffice to say that the last three days have been extremely hectic and a bit tense. She went for her regular checkup on Wednesday evening. The doc found that her BP was high and promptly admitted her into Chinmya Mission Hospital. We waited for a day without doing anything and another day with Sindha in labour. High BP, some minor bleeding and a scan that revealed that the baby had the umbilical cord around her neck forced the doc to go in for a Ceasarian section. Luckily everything went smoothly after that and the baby was delivered without any problems. Both sets of parents were here, which was good too.

Sindha is tired and a bit weak. She expects to be discharged by Tuesday. The kid is keeping us awake at night, as expected. Haven't yet finalised the name, but its most likely to be either Rachana or Megha. I'll put up pics when I get a chance

How do I feel ? I don't know, really. It hasn't yet sunk in, I guess. However it felt good to be with Sindha and the baby, cuddling together and looking into each other eyes.

We are three now.

Name Game - latest results

Mythili is leading, closely followed by Rachana, Megha and Nandita.

The boys section is lagging behind, mainly due to a strong feeling from the mom-to-be that its a girl. The only names in contention are Manav and Siddharth (common, but the name I like the most).

Thanks a whole bunch for all your suggestions, good people of L-J. Sindha and I spent half of Saturday mulling over the list.

On the work front, I think I've played my cards right. Time will tell.

Name game

Rachana, Megha, Keerthana. Manav, if its a boy. But then Manav Madhav doesn't sound too good.

Maneka Gandhi's book isn't helping any. We have reached the stage where we think Pinky is a better name than any of those mythological ones. Ghatotkacha is out. So is Avalokitheshwari.

Suggestions ?