All in the Family

Tarun participated in a singing competition in school. He sang ‘Country Roads’ by John Denver, and won the third place – the bronze. His school had taken a photograph of the singers and sent it to the parents. The singer in action :)
Abhinav too is intense about music. The moment he hears music, he claps, or sways or taps his thigh in rhythm. I had read in some baby book, that all babies have a sense of music and can follow rhythm.

Endae Keralam Ethra Sundaram and a Wedding

Us Cousins

Tomy tying the minnu

Family sans Abhinav

The bride

Dinner the previous night

We left for Kerala from Chennai on the 25th of December, for my cousin's wedding. Tarun and Abhinav, contrary to our fears were at their best behavior in the train. I was excited about the wedding as I was to stand behind my cousin, to fulfill the duties of an elder sister as it is our custom, till the minnu/thali was tied by the groom. On the previous day of the wedding, all of us cousins, stayed at the bride - Anjana’s - place and had a great time – lots of games, gossip and ofcourse food. As my uncle, the bride’s dad, was a building contractor, there were so many people coming and going. We had erected a shamyana outside and hired tables and chairs because the people coming and going would not fit in the house, and also that it was easier to serve them food there, on banana leaves (no need of washing and easily disposable). We too had our dinner there. My mom and aunts were forever in the kitchen, preparing tones of food…breakfast, lunch, dinner, and tea, coffee and juice for those people walking into the house in between all this.

The wedding – as in our community – is conducted from the groom’s side. Due to this we had to travel over 120 Kms – one way - by road, from Maramon to Kothamangalam. Lucky for me I left with my cousin in a car early in the morning, to hotel Sicilia (we didn’t dress up from home due to the distance), located at Thodupuzha, to get dressed then to the groom’s church. The rest of family and friends joined us at the church directly.
My cousin Anjana got married to Tomy Thomas. I stood behind my sister and my duties got over once the minnu was tied by Tomy, and from thereon, his sister-in law took over.
The food was lovely.. appam, mutton curry, beef, fish, chicken, pavakka fry, aviyal, thoran, rice, salad, ice cream etc etc….
Then from there close friends and family left to Tomy’s house, to participate in another custom, where the girl goes to the boy’s house for the first time. We were welcomed with cake and wine. After prayers, we started our journey once more, this time back to the bride’s place, where the bride and groom would spend 3 days, after which the bride would go permanently to the groom’s house.

The only difficult part of the wedding was the travel. We traveled over 260 Kms by road My... it was one big journey. The road, had lots of hairpin bends – enough to make our stomach’s lurch and vomit, I think George was the only one in the family who didn’t vomit - and lonely stretches amidst rubber plantations. To top it up, we lost our way a couple of times, adding to the extra kilometers.
The wedding was beautiful, and Tomy a very nice person. Tarun was dressed in a white kurtha and he managed it beautifully, again contrary to my opinion about him.

After that visiting aunts and uncles ( read “all the time eating high calorie food”) and other relatives took up most of our remaining vacation time. It was a lovely trip, Kerala as beautiful as ever, fantastic weather, the vacation lasting close to 20 days and Abhinav’s first Kerala trip.

Baby is Baptised ..

Baby was baptised on 6th December 2008. It was a simple ceremony and the only important person missing was Anoop achachen, my brother. Unlike his brother Tarun, who cried from the moment of entry into church, Abhinav never cried. Even when his lower body was immersed in the baptism tub, he never cried.(My dad the told me that the water they used was warmed slightly :)) His bawling started only when the priest poured the water on his head. All went on fine, baby fell asleep after a feed and all the guests had dinner.

A song for Abhinav..

My brother Anoop and me have an age gap of six years, and I was in the first standard when he was born. The post delivery room, where my mom was admitted was located in the ground floor of the hospital. I used to speak to my mother from outside, through the window, refusing to even look at my baby brother, due to the ‘Jealousy’ factor. I started liking him, only after he started smiling and reciprocating .

My friends keep asking if Tarun likes Abhinav. Actually I really don’t know. Tarun sometimes tells me, Babiya kupayil kalla (Throw the baby into the dustbin), Babiya ishtam alla (I don’t like baby). He pulls baby’s hair and sometimes hugs and kisses so hard, and releases only when he starts to cry. He’s most excited when I am burping Abhinav. He comes running from wherever he is, saying that he would do it . (I guess when burping, the hitting is justified :) ) .

I really don’t know as to how to manage. We are very careful.. and none of us show any love or attention towards Abhinav when Tarun is around. I guess.. as time passes, everything would be fine…..

One day..Tarun was singing for Abhinav..

Onam

This Onam, we celebrated at my moms place. This is because my father is retiring, and this is the last Onam, in the house where they lived for the past 29 years. This April he would retire and my parents would go back to Kerala. My cousins who are studying in Chennai, also joined us. Mummy made a lovely Sadhya that included, rice, paruppu, papadam, pachadi, inji kari, achar, aviyal, sambar, moru kari, pradhaman , banana chips and sharkaraparati. Tarun baby thoroughly enjoyed himself eating the traditional way, from the banana leaf. We too had a good time.

28th Day - Irivathiyettu Kettu

For us Malayalees, the 28 day after the baby is born, there is a custom called irivathiyettu kettu, where a black cord / thread is first tied around the waist of the baby, followed by a gold chain called the arinjanam.

Abhinav’s irivathiyettu kettu happened in a very simple way. For Tarun, we had invited friends and family and the function was followed by lunch. For Abhinav – I guess, him being the second – there was nothing much. My parents, and inlaws were present. George had gone to Hyderabad, so it was just the five of us.My father tied the black thread around the baby’s waist and my father-in-law, the arinjanam. This was followed, by lunch cooked by my mom. A simple function indeed :)

Baby has a name - Finally !!!

After a lot of head breaking, we have finally decided a name for baby.
My first choice was Nikhil and George's was Rohan. We also liked Ashish and Rohit. George did'nt want Nikhil, as it was his boss's name, and he said, when he heard the name, only his boss’s face came to mind and not the baby’s ; and i didnt like Rohan.
Then came Abhinav Bindra, who won India’s only at the Olympics. We thought, OK lets name him Abhinav, after Bhindra, who won the gold the year baby was born. When we checked out the meaning of the name, coincidentally both Tarun and Abhinav mean young. So, finally baby has a name, Abhinav Angayil George.

A New Addition To Our Family

Baby was born on the 2nd of August. We haven't yet decided on the name. He weighed 2.8 Kgs at birth and is one teeny weeny fellow. He keeps me totally occupied with no time to check mails, or do anything :) Would be so i guess for atlest 2 months. As of now, he resembles my brother Anoop. On seeing the pictures, Anoop got so excited that Baby looks like him. We are still looking out for names...

Baby turns 3

16th of this month, tarun turned 3. So fast...

I remember, 3 yrs back.. he was one small baby, 3.6 kilos, wrapped up in the hospital's green baby cloth..

Time goes so fast and hes going to playschool. Hes becoming an independant little fellow, making his own choices - food he wants, clothes that he will wear and so on :)

Tarun Goes To School

Tarun on June 6th started going to play school. The first week was for half an hour and the second one hour. The first and second day passed on uneventfully, with our man enjoying it, because i was there. The next day on the crying started. A total of 31 kids in 4 baches. All of them crying.Now school starts at 9.30 and closes by 12.00 - and Tarun gets up in the morning saying '' Enikku schoolil pokenda, school ishtam alla, enikku ammachi veetil poya mathi'' (I dont want to go to school, i dont like it, i want to go to grandmoms house). When we go to drop him, even before we reached the gate, he starts crying. I am almost heart broken to see him cry this way.The school is actually a nice one. Its called ' The Bluebells ' and is run by an old gentleman. There are three teachers and 5 lady helpers. I just hope baby settles down fast.

Tarun starts to write...

We have a tradition in Kerala, where, before a child is sent to school, he has to be '' initiated '' into learning. Traditionally, the child's right index finger is held by a learned person and made to write '' hari shri gana padhayae namaha '' on spread out rice (uncooked, of course :)) or sand. Then the mothers minnu / thali, is dipped in honey and same thing written on the baby's tongue.This is called 'Ezhuthinu Iruthu' (Sitting to write) or ' Vidhyarambam' (Start of education). I know this is practiced by the Christians and the Hindus of Kerala. Not too sure about the Muslims. And one more interesting thing is that no one is not supposed to hold the hand of the child and write, until this event happens. The child though, can write or scribble wherever he wants.

People who live out of Kerala too, try to adhere to this tradition. Malayala Manorama, on Vijayadashami day, organizes an event where you can take your child and make him write for the first time.

Tarun baby on Sunday the 25th wrote on rice, his hand held by my college professor and Head of Dpt., Dr. S K Sunderraj. Tarun was so excited, and unlike what i thought, didnt create a fuss. All went on well.

Rice was spread out on a tray and Dr.SKS, held his hand and wrote ' God is Love ' . Since he is from TamilNadu, he was very interested in this, though we had to guide him step by step :). We skipped the honey writing because we thought that would be a bit too much. And as Dakshina (Fees) Tarun gave him a neck tie . Tarun is starting play school on June 6th. Another event to look forward to.

The Cashew Accident

My mom was cutting raw cashews in their shell, and for an audience, she had Tarun. She had got those cashews from Kerala, some months back and she was going make theeyal (a curry) out of it. Well, the phone rang and she left the cashews and went to attend it. Then she came back and carried on with her work
After some time, Tarun went and told her that an ant had bitten his stomach and that it was itching. Mom inspected his stomach, and didn’t see anything. Then the little fellow went to sleep. Mummy just to check, lifted up his shirt, and she was shocked to see, pink burn like marks on his stomach. Only then did she realize that our little man had taken the cashew shells, when she had gone to attend the call, and placed it on his stomach. She then applied coconut oil to it – the panacea for all things of this kind.
The juice / sap like thing from the raw cashew, stains hands when touched, or if placed anywhere else, gives your skin a burnt appearance. Then the skin peels off and has to grow afresh.
In the evening after work when I went to pick him up from moms place, the fellow very proudly displayed his marks and told me (in all his toddler imagination) ''Ammachi cooker kondu polichatha'' (Grandmom did this using the pressure cooker). How we laughed. So much for my mom looking after him the whole day…

The Car

We bought a new car. We went and collected it from the Hyundai showroom yesterday. It was supposed to be delivered on Wednesday, but the registration didn’t happen, so we got it yesterday.
It’s a black Hyundai Santro Xing. We sold our old Maruti Zen and choose a Santro. When the old car went, I felt so so sad, as though a part of me had gone. This morning too when George dropped me at the office, I could not help thinking of the Zen.
The showroom people, I guess, as a customer satisfaction initiative, gave a picture of us, the sales person and the car, all in 5 minutes :) . I think it is a good initiative..

In the scanned picture, the number plate looks like it has some halo, glowy kind of an effect. Its just reflection of the light i guess, as it was close to 9.00 PM. And if you look closely, you can see Tarun eyeing away the bigger cars in the other direction. His favourite was a sporty red Getz, which unfortunatey wasn't ours, because it didn't fit our budget :)
Anyway, the new car is the latest excitement in our life and best part is Tarun baby is hyper excited about it!!

Children’s Park

One weekend we took Tarun to the Children’s Park, Guindy. I was under the impression that it was a lousy place, cramped with people. Actually it is not. For all those guys who live in Chennai, you should go to the park. There are a animals and birds in the park. They include monkeys, wild dogs, deers, parakeets, snakes, peacocks, emu, crocodile, ducks, and so on. It’s a really neatly maintained place. There are slides, and swings for children too..There is lots of space for kids to run around and have fun. For adults too it’s a nice place to walk.. in the heart of the city. Tarun had a lot of fun, and he keeps saying that he wants to go to Guindy Park..

Baby Picasso

Tarun was getting very bored. I thought i was innovative and thought would develop his creativity, teach him two colors and so on, and gave him two sketch pens. Well the result of it didn’t make me feel too intelligent :)
He had scribbled / drawn in the notebook I gave him, and also extended his creativity to the floor. I managed to pull the sketch pen away from his hand after a line on the wall :) I have put up Picasso’s sketches on the fridge. One proud mom !!!! :)

Christmas Tree

We put up the Christmas tree at home last week. I did not have time to transfer the picture, hence didn’t put it up. We bought it last week. It’s a lovely tree and most of all Tarun baby is very happy about it.