We had not gone on any pleasure trips since Achulde and Mommolde happened, as in no trips to any locale, - just us et al. So decided to go to Coorg, which has been on the top of our lists from our Bangalore days. We decided to drive all the way to Coorg and though both the set of parents didnt voice any concern, I am sure, they were not comfortable with the idea of us travelling alone with kids. In India, I guess you bring up your kids, even while they are bringing up theirs !!!! :)
Since our Club Mahindra holidays were due for a long long time, we didnt have any issues with finding a resort etc and were spared any confusions arising from that front. I think one of the wisest things that we've done is taking the ClubM membership. You dont have to plan much for a holiday in terms of where to stay etc- you are spared all the confusion from ahving to choose. Plus you automatically plan for your holidays every year when the days are credited to your account.So basically you dont keep postponing your vacation plans.We stuffed in quite a no. of places to visit in between.
Guruvayur was the first point. despite standing in the queue for 2 hours, could not make it toa darshan as the kids got really cranky by then, and the ppl in the queue also started showing signs of intolerance and some even started advising /giving tips etc. Had to pull out of the queue with reluctance , we drove till Kozhikode that nite and resumed our 6 hour journey from Calicut to Coorg in the morning. We were there for jus 2 days and most of the time was spent in the resort itself, where the kids thoroughly enjoyed. We visited the Tibetan monastery as well too, but the kids couldn't care less and were really tired, so had to call off most of what we had planned for, initially.I think the one mistake that we made was that we didnt plan for a couple of days more in the resort , but that can be excused (I guess)as we had not done any planning or travelling since ages!!! Lessons learnt for the next trip!!!And know what, though I had taken swimwear, we did not spend any time in the pool, as Mommolde was not really well and Achulde was way too scared to get in!! Besides the water was very cold too.
But all in all, had a gala time there :)
Big Brother, Busy Bee : Achulde
Chweety pie : Mommolde
Monday, April 20, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Of 'Hanuman Pandaram', 'Mahishi', 'Poochandi' and 'Jose'
When I was small and even when I was not that small, I remember being scared of the dark, of Ghosts, of entering into any unlit room, once dusk had fallen. And it took me a long long time to start sleeping in my own room. I remember being jealous of UL, when she proudly used to mention, that she sleeps alone in a room. We used to discuss then, of how unfair it was of adults to scare us children by mentioning about ghosts and all such stuff. My folks used to use words like ' Hanuman Pandaram', 'Mahishi', ' Poochandi' etc, to scare me , when I wouldn't listen or obey and having never seen one, I used to associate these names with the scariest figure, I could imagine then. I remember declaring to UL then, that I wouldn't do such a thing to my children(All this happened, when we were probably 8-10 yrs old).Now I see myself using these very words to scare Achulde, when he is naughty. His response varies. Sometimes its a ' Achulde pedi', but most of the time he just ignores and carries on with his activities.I try and promise myself not to do that anymore, but most of the times, i cant control.I am happy that he ignores it most of the time. Recently, I noticed that, hes pretty scared of the guy who comes to clean the windows and fans etc. He sports a Big moustache and looks pretty scary, so I started using his name to get things done.Whenever I say' Jose is coming', the lil fellow, would go and sit in the chair and say ' Achulde Goo Boy' and then sit there for anothe 2 mts. Now that has also waned after a while. The funniest moment was when I overheard Achulde telling Mommolde ' Mommo, NO, Achu chetta Jose-ne vilichi. No No' :)
Vidyarambham
On the 2nd week of Mar, we all went to Mookambika for Achulde's Vidyarambham. We'd been plannning this from quite sometime. It has to be done before the lil one turns 3 and this is next month.And long weekends and holidays, it would be so crowded, so we decided to go during march, when we calculated it would be least crowded as, it would be exam time for all the kids.Though we heard , at the last mt, that it was the utsavam time there, the temple authorities informed that, it would be crowded only during the Rathotsava time, so we decided to goahead with our plans. We went by train from Tvm to Mangalore and from there, took a cab to Kollur.The last and only time, i'd gone there before was over 12 yrs back and I'd loved the place then. Right in the middle of the forest, small township, lush green and all peace and quite and just being in the temple, calms you down and makes you feel blessed .Last time we could spot Pea-cocks and deers even on the road sides, they were not scared as they were not harmed by humans.
This time around, I noticed that its become more of a large township, but still the sleepy one only still, luckily :) But the pea-cocks and deers were not there, though.Offlate Guruvayur has been so crowded, that Darsan takes a min of 6 to 8 hours. We were glad to see that , it was not much crowded in Mookambika.Came morning and Achulde declared that " Innu Achulde HariSree Venda". But by the time we reached the temple, he was not protesting, and when the priest started chanting the mantra, he looked interested and sat quietly on his father's lap and did whatever he was told to. The function went off well and even lil Mommolde didnt cry thoughout the ceremony and was watching curiously.
This time around, I noticed that its become more of a large township, but still the sleepy one only still, luckily :) But the pea-cocks and deers were not there, though.Offlate Guruvayur has been so crowded, that Darsan takes a min of 6 to 8 hours. We were glad to see that , it was not much crowded in Mookambika.Came morning and Achulde declared that " Innu Achulde HariSree Venda". But by the time we reached the temple, he was not protesting, and when the priest started chanting the mantra, he looked interested and sat quietly on his father's lap and did whatever he was told to. The function went off well and even lil Mommolde didnt cry thoughout the ceremony and was watching curiously.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
issha shada dattada
That was the new tune, Achulde had been humming for the last couple of days and neither self nor the husband could make heads or tails on which song it was.Normally we make out the song from its tune and then the words would make sensei.e, the resemblance would gently appear. But this time around we had no clue.But next morning, when I went to drop him at ELC, his teecha there, tells me that they are practising an action song for the School Founder's day, based on Disney's theme song ' Its a small world after all'.Over the course of next couple ofweeks, issha shada dattada became issa shollel attada :)we found ourselves singing 'issha shada dattada' all the time.Once when the husband sang it aloud in Achulde's words, the lil singer corrected his father with ' Damesha, angane alla, say ' Mole', mole, mole(for small) with his hands cupped like a ball to show 'small'.April 1st was the D- day, and he was to perform to a packed audience in Tagor theatre'. Already i was thrilled and tensed for him.We all were seated an hour in advance and the stage was all set. The tiny tots' group action song was the first item. All of them walked in and was forming two rows from either side of the stage.Achulde walks in and his attention gets diverted to some prop on the stage and he stops right there, deciding to watch it furhter. His teecha comes to the rescue and carries him to where he should be standing . His is not the only case we find, as the ' teecha's have to run here and there on the stage to bring back toddlers who have chosen different spots than the ones intended for them.The songs starts on the background and the all the lil one are looking to either side of the stage at the teachers and imitating what the teachers are showing them from either side. From where we sit, we can see the teecha raising her hands, turning around etc.And on the screen set at the back, they were screening photos taken during the last one yr during the various functions/activities in the school.Halfway thru the dance , while doing a turn around step, Achulde notices the photos on the screen and he decides to dance while watching the photos !!! From then on , he's 90 deg turned , ie., hes standing sidewise on the stage, but hes dancing nonetheless, doing all the steps, just that he almost had his back to the crowd :) It was so much fun to watch the show.In between, the lil one standing next to him decided that enough is enough and did a ramp walk across the stage,towards where her favourite teecha was standing!!! and then there were many faces, who were on the verge of breaking down into tears, seeing the huge crowd in front of them.All in all, it was such a nice experience, all the proud parents assembled and enjoying.I can imagine the effort that has gone into putting this up. To get them all to stand and perform is such a major acheivement I must say
Monday, March 23, 2009
Unaccustomed Earth
Everytime I read a work of Jhumpa Lahiri, I end up sad and depressed for days on end. I thought this plethora of feelings that I go through, had something to do perhaps with my ageing process ;) or to the fact that I empathise a lot and thus create all such trouble for self.But I was kind of relieved on browsing the net for her works, almost all the reviewers admitted to being haunted /daunted on reading her works. I read The Namesake when I was pregnant with Achulde, it did not leave a nice feeling and I decided not too read her work again, atleast for a long time, then.
So when one of my closest buddies, gave 'The Unaccustomed Earth', her latest work, as a gift, I was initially reluctant to even start reading it. But I soon found myself, sitting late into the nite, such a page turner effect the book had.Its a collection of short stories and what is common across the stories is that in each of the story, one of the characters , mostly, the protagonist would have a secret to reveal that would turn out to be the crux of the whole story.And in each story, the secret is brought beautifully , in a unique way, mesmerizing style of writing.She is a skilled writer, enviable indeed, engaging , confident and completely in control.I loved the first one on Ruma and then 'Hema and Kaushik' the best.The latter haunted me for days on end. The only glitch was that , the moment the venue shifted to Thailand and clue was given on the timeline(2004), it suddenly crossed my mind that , Tsunami would become part of the backdrop and it turned out to be right. That was the only time, I found myself out of the book and not engaged/engrossed, the surprise element (if she intended any) was lost.But that didnt reduce the impact of the grief by an iota even. I was saddened and disappointed by the decisions taken by the protagonist(Hema), and somehow I wanted to shake her into making the right decision, all the time knowing and to be honest ,consoling self saying its just a work of fiction!!!
Maybe it was reminding me of one of my best friends, who is now in a very difficult situation in her personal life, and has not been doing anything abt it, I just dont want her to be another Hema. I want her to take control of her life and make things easy for her and others in her life. This is to you girl, hope you reach where you ought to be, where you belong to, pretty pretty soon, touchwood.
So when one of my closest buddies, gave 'The Unaccustomed Earth', her latest work, as a gift, I was initially reluctant to even start reading it. But I soon found myself, sitting late into the nite, such a page turner effect the book had.Its a collection of short stories and what is common across the stories is that in each of the story, one of the characters , mostly, the protagonist would have a secret to reveal that would turn out to be the crux of the whole story.And in each story, the secret is brought beautifully , in a unique way, mesmerizing style of writing.She is a skilled writer, enviable indeed, engaging , confident and completely in control.I loved the first one on Ruma and then 'Hema and Kaushik' the best.The latter haunted me for days on end. The only glitch was that , the moment the venue shifted to Thailand and clue was given on the timeline(2004), it suddenly crossed my mind that , Tsunami would become part of the backdrop and it turned out to be right. That was the only time, I found myself out of the book and not engaged/engrossed, the surprise element (if she intended any) was lost.But that didnt reduce the impact of the grief by an iota even. I was saddened and disappointed by the decisions taken by the protagonist(Hema), and somehow I wanted to shake her into making the right decision, all the time knowing and to be honest ,consoling self saying its just a work of fiction!!!
Maybe it was reminding me of one of my best friends, who is now in a very difficult situation in her personal life, and has not been doing anything abt it, I just dont want her to be another Hema. I want her to take control of her life and make things easy for her and others in her life. This is to you girl, hope you reach where you ought to be, where you belong to, pretty pretty soon, touchwood.
Bhakti Margam
Nowadays Bhakti is the flavour of the season and the TV channels are loaded with Bhakti serials, atleast the malayalam channels. My Achan was an ardent fan of Swamy Ayyappan which ran for almost 2 yrs and , when they started running short of original stories on the diety, they introduced stories on experiences of Devotees and in no time, it got so boring that even Achan gave up after sometime. But even now I see a torrent of such serials like Devi Mahatmyam, Krishna Guruvayurppa, etc etc.Since Achulde and Mommolde play with the remote quite often, the TV would be running in the background, most of the evenings in our home though no one would be watching as such. One such day, it was showing a story on the Goddess killing an Asura and most of us sitting in the family room were passive viewers. The Asura entered the scene,the make up was intended to be scary, the blackpaint on the face, the Jada , the big moustache etc, he was doing the roaring laughter coninuously for 5 mts on entry, the tyical demon laughter and I was beginning to wonder whether Achulde would appreciate this act at all. I didnt want my child to have a disturbed sleep and was abt to reach out for the remote to turn it off, when the monster on TV decided to do the Attahaasam once more and immediately from behind my chair , I hear a meek 'return' ' Hee haa haa haa'. That was Achulde standing there and imitating the Asura's laugh. He was enjoying the show. Apparently, he had not even realised that , it was something that was designed to scare the viewers!!! He was enjoying it thoroughly thinking its a joke :)
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Happy First Brithday to you Mommolde :)
Its been a long time indeed and what better excuse do you need - it was Mommolde's first birthday . The star birthday was on 31st, but I had to be at work on that day, eventhough it was a saturday!!
And on his DOB, the husband was away in Beijing, on a 5 day tour!!! So we decided to celebrate on 14th , Valentines' day.
Achulde's First b'day was a gala affair, we'd even roped in an event manager, who managed the whole show for us including getting the return gifts, caps and blowers and all things nice. We had asked for a live cartoon character(in attire ofcourse) (Winnie the Pooh, as that was the theme for the party)- that was the anti-climax of the whole show, the guy was so thin, he looked awfully thin even in the Pooh attire :), now all that brings a smile to one's face.
We wanted Mommolde's b'rthday to be equally good.We had Pooh as the theme, this time too. Out here in TVM, they've event managers doing weddings etc on a large scale, but nothing on a small scale. We'd booked Travancore Hall of South Park, we but we had to do most of the arrangements ourselves, with the help of the Hotel boys. This time we were not planning on a large scale anyways, just family . And we didnt have much of friends in TVM anyways.
We'd purchased party poppers and snowflake spray, when we went shopping for the return gifts , and I gave clear instructions to a couple of hotel boys on how to just twist it to pop it and to spray on a certain height so that it would snow down beautifully. All was set. The cake cutting was set for 7 in the evening and all the folks arrived on time. Though we had party caps and eye masks, most of the kids refused the eye masks and opted for the cap only.
Achu and Mommo were sporting Offwhite Sherwani'is and both the kids for a change, didnt resist self''s attempt to dress them up in this attire, that by itself was a major achievement for self. :)
And at 7, we 4 got together to this side of the table and the crowd assembled on the other side and all started singing the Happy Birthday song.I was trying hard to get Mommolde to touch the knife atleast. Achulde was already blowing the candle and then suddenly the Hotel boys made their way into the crowd . The one with the spray had atleast forgotten half my instructions, for he was spraying the snow at just his level, the spray didnt have time to turn to snowflake, so it decided to just stay as lather on the guests' head. Same is the case with the popper man - he was miles away from the party scene, pop goes the contents into air!!!:) My attention wandered from the cake cutting and I couldn't control my laughter and I noticed that the whole crowd 's attention was in that direction, all laughing loud and running away from the scene. Then the "Snow Man", decided to focus on us and all of us were like ' Run for your lives'. The husband was like' M, focus here, we should be cutting the cake, not looking elsewhere!!!' etc.
Finally off went the boy and we returned to our second attempt at cake cutting. By then a naughty lil friend of Achu's(Kanna Baby) decided to join our side of the table. Kanna baby for a change had decided to wear the eye mask!!! He walked over from the other side in style sporting the Cap and eye masks and Mommolde got all curious as well a lil worried at the same time( He was seeing someone in a mask for the first time in his life).This lil fellow decided to position himself by my right side, a lil behind me and Mommolde who was on my left arm took a sprint and landed on my right arm and started climbing over my shoulder, trying to take a good look at Kanna Baby,with his back towards the cake and the crowd, there was no way we could get him to look at the cake , let alone making him cut the cake!!!
It was so funny, this time for a change, we were quiet relaxed and laughed our hearts out.
Finally, the husband somehow managed to get Mommolde to look our way and all of us cut the cake together :)
Achulde was really happy as he got to play for a long long time with all his friends. And we had a nice time with family and very close friends.
Man, Mommolde is already One, one year just whizzed by!!!
And on his DOB, the husband was away in Beijing, on a 5 day tour!!! So we decided to celebrate on 14th , Valentines' day.
Achulde's First b'day was a gala affair, we'd even roped in an event manager, who managed the whole show for us including getting the return gifts, caps and blowers and all things nice. We had asked for a live cartoon character(in attire ofcourse) (Winnie the Pooh, as that was the theme for the party)- that was the anti-climax of the whole show, the guy was so thin, he looked awfully thin even in the Pooh attire :), now all that brings a smile to one's face.
We wanted Mommolde's b'rthday to be equally good.We had Pooh as the theme, this time too. Out here in TVM, they've event managers doing weddings etc on a large scale, but nothing on a small scale. We'd booked Travancore Hall of South Park, we but we had to do most of the arrangements ourselves, with the help of the Hotel boys. This time we were not planning on a large scale anyways, just family . And we didnt have much of friends in TVM anyways.
We'd purchased party poppers and snowflake spray, when we went shopping for the return gifts , and I gave clear instructions to a couple of hotel boys on how to just twist it to pop it and to spray on a certain height so that it would snow down beautifully. All was set. The cake cutting was set for 7 in the evening and all the folks arrived on time. Though we had party caps and eye masks, most of the kids refused the eye masks and opted for the cap only.
Achu and Mommo were sporting Offwhite Sherwani'is and both the kids for a change, didnt resist self''s attempt to dress them up in this attire, that by itself was a major achievement for self. :)
And at 7, we 4 got together to this side of the table and the crowd assembled on the other side and all started singing the Happy Birthday song.I was trying hard to get Mommolde to touch the knife atleast. Achulde was already blowing the candle and then suddenly the Hotel boys made their way into the crowd . The one with the spray had atleast forgotten half my instructions, for he was spraying the snow at just his level, the spray didnt have time to turn to snowflake, so it decided to just stay as lather on the guests' head. Same is the case with the popper man - he was miles away from the party scene, pop goes the contents into air!!!:) My attention wandered from the cake cutting and I couldn't control my laughter and I noticed that the whole crowd 's attention was in that direction, all laughing loud and running away from the scene. Then the "Snow Man", decided to focus on us and all of us were like ' Run for your lives'. The husband was like' M, focus here, we should be cutting the cake, not looking elsewhere!!!' etc.
Finally off went the boy and we returned to our second attempt at cake cutting. By then a naughty lil friend of Achu's(Kanna Baby) decided to join our side of the table. Kanna baby for a change had decided to wear the eye mask!!! He walked over from the other side in style sporting the Cap and eye masks and Mommolde got all curious as well a lil worried at the same time( He was seeing someone in a mask for the first time in his life).This lil fellow decided to position himself by my right side, a lil behind me and Mommolde who was on my left arm took a sprint and landed on my right arm and started climbing over my shoulder, trying to take a good look at Kanna Baby,with his back towards the cake and the crowd, there was no way we could get him to look at the cake , let alone making him cut the cake!!!
It was so funny, this time for a change, we were quiet relaxed and laughed our hearts out.
Finally, the husband somehow managed to get Mommolde to look our way and all of us cut the cake together :)
Achulde was really happy as he got to play for a long long time with all his friends. And we had a nice time with family and very close friends.
Man, Mommolde is already One, one year just whizzed by!!!
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