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.

The Speed breakers of Defence Colony

Defence Colony, Chennai was a place where peace and tranquility reigned supreme, even though located in the city. All this changed with the start of construction of the cloverleaf grade separator at Guindy. There used to just a roundabout (called rountanna in TamilNadu) there, and to cope up with the ever increasing flow of traffic, the government decided to build a grade separator. You know like any road construction, further congestion of traffic happened. Then the commuters started taking shortcuts through Defence Colony. Lorry traffic is not permitted, but the other vehicles, just because the road is empty, would go at super duper speeds. Then the residents came up with an idea. They put up speed breakers. Such huge, unscientifically sized ones, that low base cars like Zens and old cars, Kinetic Hondas and other scooterettes whose shock absorbers were a little old, had their base scraped each time it went over a speed breaker. The road stretches to only a kilometer, but there are 6 speed breakers on it. Vodafone sponsored some roadsigns and the colony eagerly took it up. They have put up a lot of roadsigns, and someone with a permanent marker, wrote on all the “speed breaker “ roadsigns. Do check out the pics :)

The Police Story

Guess most of you would have heard of Sodexho coupons. Well for those who havent, in India its common for most of the office's to give these coupons to employees, so as to avail tax benefits on the amount. These can be used in restaurants, to buy food / vegs and so on from select outlets.. Well you must be wondering where this is leading to???

What are the uses of the Sodexho coupons??
1. To eat at restaurants
2. To buy fruits and vegetables
3. To bribe policemen

Yes, you read right.
This Saturday, George , my cousin, Tarun and me went to Reliance Fresh located in Ashok Nagar, for our regular home stuff shopping. The roads are real wide and people for years have been parking at the side. Well we too parked our car and went shopping, as we always do. When we had paid our veg bills and were at the non- veg section, buying fish, there was an announcement on the speaker informing that the traffic policemen had come and those who had parked bikes and cars had to remove them.
George, baby and me went out to see the state of our car. George's purse was totally empty as we were planning to go to the ATM on the way back and we just had the Sodexho coupons. We had paid Rs.1300/- at Reliance and was left with coupons worth Rs.200/- only.
I was carrying baby and saw the police guy put a lock through the rim of the tyre, locking the car. He told me that we had to pay a fine of Rs. 150 /- for parking on the road.
Meanwhile George went to meet the policeman (the regular looking one- tall, huge mustache, huge pot belly ) who was heading the ' operation ', to inform him that he had to release the lock for him to go to the ATM to get the money for the fine, and that he had only the coupons. The policeman then asked him what the coupons were and to give him Rs.100/- worth coupons. George was shocked. He then asked George the uses of of it and where it was accepted and so on. He gave the policeman the coupon and was walking towards me. The policeman was also walking with George and very politely told me that we could take the car. I thought he saw my almost 8 month pregnant tummy and was showing some karuna (pity). Then only George told me the story of the Sodexho bribe. I was shocked. This was the first time I had come across a policeman so openly asking for a bribe. It was almost funny.
So bad is the state of our policemen !

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…