Overheard: Check the price

My maid talking to her son on her cellphone "Yes, I know we are usually loyal to 'two leaves'. But check the price being offered by the 'sun' group. If they offer us at least a thousand more, along with clothes, promise them the entire street's votes. Otherwise, let us stick to 'two leaves'. At least they pay us immediately"

The state of our country!

Govinda Govinda

As per our family's custom, we decided to let Button adopt the bald look again. Some trips are just jinxed from the start... this was one of them. First, the husband went a day early on work to Tirupati. Like Murphy would have it, the driver who drove Button and I to Tirupati decided to drive to Bangalore instead. A journey that normally takes 3 - 4 hours from Chennai took us 6 hours! Button cooperated brilliantly, otherwise he may have been witness to his mom murdering the driver.

We checked into Fortune Kences hotel at Tirupati (supposedly one of the best hotels). Balls! Read my rant at Tripadvisor.

In Tirupati, as was taught to him, Button repeated ad nauseum that "he was going to give ummachi (God) all his hair" and that "he would not cry, he would be happy". One cold morning at 4.30 a.m. the barber did away with Button's lovely curly locks, and true to his promise, he did not cry, even utter a word of protest.

However, when we took him into the public bathroom to bathe him, he HOWLED and how! He yelled to anyone who'd listen that the floors were dirty(!) and that mamma get 'mausi' to do 'poncha' immediately. We managed to bribe him to take a quick bath with promises of chocolates and ambulances and proceeded to the darshan lines.


And then the long wait in the queue began... although we were in the Rs.300/- queue, we waited from 5.30a.m. to get darshan at 10.00 a.m. With a two and half year old, its hardly my idea of piety or spirituality! But Button got into the groove yelling 'Govinda Govinda' in the ears of anyone who dared nod off in the long queue of waiting devotees!

We'd been telling Button that Venkateshwara being the God of Plenty would bless him with wisdom, riches, health and prosperity. To simplify these words, we told him Lord Balaji would give him "many-many" of everything. When my dad asked him on his return what God would give him in exchange for Button's hair, his reply was "Many many taxis. 10 for each hand!" Amen!!

Resolution # 1

2011 dawned many moons ago. And this year my resolution is to stick to my resolutions! The first of them was to resurrect my dormant blog. The blog has ceased to be just an outlet for penning down my thoughts. It remains (and here comes my B-school training) -
1. A diary of memories that my mind finds difficult to store of late.
2. A place to leave something that is quintessentially 'me' for posterity. Like my mom's letters to my dad, or my grandfather's diaries or my grandmother's diamonds!
3. A wonderful place to make and keep new friends. I already met a blogging mamma and it was oh-so-wonderful to bond with her.
4. An ode to my family.
5. A fulfillment of a resolution to do something creative. While it may not be in the league of artists and writers, it gives me joy, and so it remains a testament to my creativity.

Thank you 2011 for arriving. Good luck!

Sabbatical

With Button's school and a growing list of school related activities,I barely manage to find time to blog ( more importantly the inner energy and enthusiasm for blogging seems to have ebbed). Although the wish to blog is dormant at the moment, I have resolved to come back after a few weeks.

All my blog friends, thanks for bringing sunshine to my life. I shall keep checking on you and leaving comments as usual.

As for Button, he is so full of energy and new developments every day, that I find each day whizzing past.

Take care and as the big man said "hasta la vista baby" :)

...the Birthday Party

6th of June dawned bright and sunny (thank God!) We had invited about 60 people of which about 50 turned up. We had called people over for lunch as we thought it would give us ample time to catch up with our friends. The menu was simple. A few Maharashtrian specialities for starters (including my favourite kothambir vadi), dal-chawal and a couple of subzis for lunch and gulab jamun and cake for dessert. We had ordered a 'Mickey Mouse' cake for Button as it was the only cartoon character he could identify at that time.

My mom and I wanted to "do" something ourselves and decided to make several posters to make the event even more special. I designed several posters that I got printed out on photo-paper. We pasted them onto hand made paper and made some designs all around. We discovered a shop called 'Hobby Ideas' in Mahalaxmi, Mumbai and became kids-in-a-candy-shop again! We shopped for several hundreds, including punches that could punch holes in a certain design, paints, metallic colors, stickers, rub-on embossings and what not! Reminded me of the olden-golden days when SUPW used to be so boring :)

Button was slightly cranky at the party as everybody wanted to hold him. The other kids seemed to have a ball though. They had a blast especially with the balloons (we had ordered about 300 balloons to be put up and a 100 more to be left lying loose in a corner).

All in all, we were happy at having been able to thank Button's well-wishers in Bombay.

Button, I wish you happiness and health. May you learn to take decisions on your own and stand by them. May you grow up to be healthy and wise, happy and nice. May you have courage to do the right thing always, even if it means lesser money or popularity. God Bless sweetheart!

Sun shining through...

...after two days of continuous rains, which alternatively left me in high spirits and black depressive moods, the sun came through just an hour ago... and here is the view from my bedroom.

June just flew past....

...what with two birthday celebrations, "annual" check up, school and the horrible monsoons.....

In a bid to recollect Button's first b'day, I jot down my memories.

I slogged my b^tt off. Thankfully my parents were here to take care of me :) We could not celebrate Button's "star" b'day on 26th of May as my husband's grandmom passed away. We conducted his "aayush homam", "ganapathi homam" and "navagraha homam" on his date of birth instead. We dressed him up in a silk dhoti and he DID look like a li'l Krishna! It was a lovely auspicious occasion and the traditionalist in me reveled at the chants and "havan" and awesome food!

On the 6th(which was a saturday), we called a few friends over to a restaurant(nearby) for lunch(about 50 people turned up). The invitation read as follows...

Dear Aunty and Uncle,

I turn 1 this year.To fill you in on my progress over the last year, I can now stand holding amma's hand, even take a couple of wobbly steps, though I prefer crawling. I love music, especially this uncle called A R Rahman (who composed two of my favourite songs 'Masakali' and 'Ringa ringa ringa'). I love rasam rice and Marie biscuits. When I go to my grandparents' houses I get to see many birds and animals, which I like. I love switching on the light and switching it off (about fifty times in two minutes is my personal record). I love reading my books and tearing up amma's (they do not have any pictures, so boring na?) I like my toys, but prefer appa's laptop and mobile and something he calls blackberry (which is my competitor for appa’s attention!).

Next month onwards, I shall be a bit busy with school. So I've asked amma and appa to invite you for lunch on the 6th of June'09 (Saturday), so that I can thank you in person for your blessings, love and good wishes. Please remember to take a slice of the yummy cake and don't forget to check out my lovely new clothes. I have attached some pictures of me over the last year. Enjoy! :)

The Venue
Utsav Restaurant, Ravindra Natya Mandir
Prabhadevi (Behind Siddhi Vinayak, alongside the ICICI Bank)

Other notes:
* Lunch timings: 12 noon - 1.30 p.m.
* Cake cutting at 12.30 p.m.
* Underground parking available in plenty
* Please let us know in case you would not be able to attend to give us time to decide how long you need to stand in the punishment corner.

I look forward to seeing you.

Giggles and Gurgles
Button


TO BE CONTINUED.......