Of birthday cakes..

I had mentioned Pari's birthday cake in a recent post. Most people who saw the cake were impressed with my idea of a piano cake as well the craft of the designer. My sister, however, wasn't. She felt that by ordering the cake, I am not putting any effort and insisted that I bake one for Pari. It is understandable. Sis bakes lovely cakes and dresses them so well that they can easily pass as store bought designer cakes. I have none of her talent, and zilch willingness to make extra work for myself. We ended up ordering a cake from a professional bakery but this incident reminded of some of the innovative cakes my parents had baked for my birthday. My mother is the kitchen goddess and baking queen. I think except for the first, second and a few later ones, she always baked cakes for my birthdays and continues to do so to this day. One cake that I specifically remember was the guitar cake for my 9th birthday. I was taking guitar classes at the time and my dad thought it was a cool idea to make a cake that reflected my current hobby. I have no clue how they did it. I may have been at school or my usual absent-minded self. I would imagine that Mom would have baked multiple cakes which Papa would have cut into shapes and decorated with chocolate and frosting. I just know that it was there on the table in the living room when I came to cut the cake, and I got super excited to see it. Fortunately, I still have a picture to show Pari.

Of being a bookworm..

 ..is a good reputation to have. Despite our endeavour to keep the event small and casual, Pari still received many presents for her birthday. Amongst them stood out 6 books presented by as many friends, who have known her for less than 6 months. 

Frankly, this was not a surprise to us. I still remember her 8th birthday, when we had hosted a big party for her including her friends, our friends, colleagues and relatives. Almost all the guests had got her books as presents. I had stacked the books in a neat pile next to the child, and it was almost as high as her! She had received so many sets of books - the Wind in the willows series, the Famous five series, multiple books from the the Wimpy kid and the Geronimo Stilton series amongst others. Pari was a fast reader even in those days and got through the books rather swiftly, post which I passed them on to other kids in our circle of friends and family.    

This year, the books are obviously, all grown-up like herself. I must admit that I am rather impressed with her friends' choices.. can't wait to get my hands on these!

       

16th birthday with 17 friends..

 ..and what a delight it was! We finally celebrated Pari's birthday today. She has attended her new school for less than 6 months, and I am so proud to see her already being great friends with half the kids in her class - which is to say 100% of the girls and 0% of the boys :) For her birthday, Pari invited 26 friends from the current school out of which 17 turned up. My love for little girls is no secret. I realise that this didn't come out sounding the way it was intended to be, so will clarify - I love my daughter, my little nieces and their young friends. I enjoyed hosting Pari's lovely friends - such polite, warm and promising young people who brightened up our party with their enthusiasm. 

At my end, I tried to surprise Pari with a piano cake. However, I realise that I am very poor at keeping secrets. Pari mentioned that she overheard me discussing the last-minute modifications with the cake designer this morning, and gathered that it was a cake related to music. So much for my undercover execution since last 15 days.. duh! Thankfully, the cake didn't disappoint.

16 again..

..this time as a parent. I am wondering if that qualifies me as an expert. Frankly, I hit the motherhood jackpot and got a great deal - a extremely easy child to parent. So far, it has been a cakewalk, and if there is one thing that I don't want to change in my life - it is the child I have. I can count on my fingers, on one hand, the times or things that didn't work out between us. That is a lot given the 16 years together. Ok, why not! I will list the things that I didn't like about Pari.

1. Pari made me very very sick in-utero. I had the worst time and just about made it through. 

2. Pari didn't eat solid foods for the first 2 years of her life. Really, the stress of feeding her shortened our collective lives by many years.

3. This child didn't want to leave the house, like ever! I had to literally throw her out in the evenings to ensure that she gets some fresh air, if not exercise in the park. 

4. Pari quit Kathak despite progressing really well in the first 3 years. 2 reasons - firstly, her aversion to any kind of physical activity, and secondly, she found it very difficult to memorize and write long complicated sentences in Hindi in the dance theory exam. We didn't even collect the certificate for the grade 2 exam that she had appeared for, because Pari so strongly refused to pursue it further. 

I have run out of the things and still have the thumb left. Thumbs-up for Pari.. Happy 16!

16!

Pari turns 16 tomorrow. To me, it feels like I was 16, not so long ago. The days are so fresh and vivid in my memory. Like Pari, I was in the 11th grade, struggling with the rapidly mounting pressure of advanced-level Physics, Chemistry and Maths after scoring very well  in 10th grade with nominal effort. Nobody and nothing had prepared me for this sudden acceleration in academic rigor and I remember having bouts of self-doubt. Pari is in the same boat and goes through similar emotions on a regular basis, and I try to support her as best as I can. It actually helps to remember my 16 year old self because I can relate to her challenges and insecurities so well.

It is a lack-luster birthday eve. My enthusiastic child, who starts planning for every birthday 6 months in advance, is quietly studying for her school exams that begin tomorrow. We had to move the birthday party to the following week to accommodate the exams. To justify the deferred celebrations, I pulled out the pre-natal hospital records and showed to Pari that the due date predicted by the gynac was 22nd Jan. The doctors had planned a leave from 10th Jan, not wanting to take a chance with my 'precious pregnancy'(that is medical term!), they extracted her on 9th Jan. Her actual birthday is 22nd Jan and a celebration any day before that is early instead of delayed. Always a logical person, Pari appears to be quite satisfied with the explanation and her initial disappointment has diminished. Happy birthday my lovely child, I am so blessed to have you.

Because we need a post everyday..

 ..even when I have no ideas or will to write, I will dig up a really old draft and make do with it. I had written this prior to living the last 1/3rd duration of my life. It is a complete post which never got posted for reasons I can't remember - perhaps I just felt too self-conscious to post it. No such hang-ups now. I take it as an opportunity to look back at my much younger self and smile!

3.2.2009

Life just keeps getting stranger.. wonder when I would know it all. My best laid plans go awry in such disappointing ways, and completely unexpected things turn so joyous. Last night was such a time, the latter one that is. It was our anniversary, and disheartened by the way the first two went off, I had no plans at all for this one. The day started early, unintentionally because we slept after midnight. I went to bed around 11.30pm and was trying to put the baby to sleep when the husband pulled out this little bag from the cupboard. It is his first gift to me since our wedding. I don't count the baby as a gift from him since she is shared by us and the rest of the family, and wasn't intentional to begin with. Well, I want a pair of platinum earrings much much more, but can do with a solitaire this time.

14 years later, that diamond pendant remains the only expensive, befitting-a-spouse gift that I have received from the husband. I certainly didn't imagine this at the time of writing the original post. I recall that at some point in our marriage, we just realized that exchanging gifts is an overhead which involves too much effort without commensurate returns in terms of satisfaction or happiness. We simply decided to discontinue the practice. We buy whatever we like, whenever we like for ourselves, without waiting for occasions or for each other. In summary, we have decommercialized our life events and it has served us well. 

The baby refusing to sleep that night, still refuses to sleep at a decent hour. However, we are not bothered by that anymore. She has an assortment of personal devices for company. And we no longer share a bedroom, bed or bedtime!

My fascination with platinum has declined in tandem with the decline in its price against gold. It is no longer perceived as the most expensive, exclusive, rare metal available for jewellery, and I no longer desire more of it. For the record, I have already passed on my platinum chain and regular-wear diamond pendants to Pari that she wears with pride.  

I have more diamonds and a bigger solitaire now, but none of it has been purchased by me. This is something that hasn't changed since. I continue to believe that I possess enough jewellery and only greed, not need can justify buying anymore. I still don't buy any jewellery except as gifts for others.  

Joka Diary - 10/7/2011

I was just going through my drafts, looking for some near-complete post and this caught my eye. It is such a nice memory.. wonder why it got stuck in drafts. Anyways, this will have to be my post for today!

Yesterday was Pari's half birthday, she turned half-an-year older. Papa had already reached Alld. well in time, as did the cake from Dadu. Both nani's and the two favorite mausi's were present for the celebrations, and Pari had a blast. Only caveat being, none of them, absolutely nobody realized that it was her half birthday, except ofcourse mumma, who happens to be too far from the child to make an impact. Pari is exceptionally fond of celebrating birthdays and the family obliges whenever she expresses an inclination for it. Any family gathering is coupled with a cake and some ribbons to transform into a birthday party. She had 4 of them last year.

Now because it was Pari's half-birthday yesterday, it happens to be my birthday today. We are exactly 6 months apart. Being away from home, I didn't expect it to be much. Which is why when the batch invited us for a booze party, I readily grabbed the offer. I didn't want to be alone on my birthday, and a bunch of drunk classmates almost always makes for good entertainment. We reached the boys' hostel around 10.15 am, and lot of snacking, drinking, singing and dancing ensued. I had fun, just by watching people have fun. Around 11.30, I decided to call it a day, and started to leave, but my friends showed reluctance and insisted that we stay on a little more. The boys' hostel is about 400 metres from our hostel and I would've walked back alone but for my fear of the Joka snakes. They are just about everywhere these days. So much that I am actually getting used to them snakes. Anyways, I agreed to wait a bit and at the stroke of midnight, the music changed to the customary birthday song and a cake appeared out of nowhere. I am sure the girls had ratted on me! I know that I am not known for being perceptive but I do take pride in a strong intuition. So, it is rather stupid how I had failed to see through this. The cake cutting was followed by more dancing and we all had a great time.

Now that I think of it, I have not had such an enjoyable birthday in a long time. Also, it felt really special because so far, none of our classmates have been treated to such an elaborate birthday celebration. We are mostly too busy meeting deadlines for assignments to bother about a fellow student growing an year older. In any case, this can easily be my best memory of Joka!

Ye moh moh ke dhaage..

I watched the movie 'Dum Laga kar Haisha' on a flight last week, and this song has been playing non-stop in my head & on my phone since. Apart from the fact that it is indeed a soulful song and that I really loved the  movie - so much that I downloaded it and watched a re-run in less than 24 hours after the first viewing, the reason that I feel so connected is because it is also reflective of our circumstances. We are all so tied up with 'moh ke dhaage' or 'the strings of attachment'. Most of these are by virtue of birth.. with the parents, grand-parents, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, even with the children. The other set arises out of love/marriage. We complete 10 years of marriage today, and I continue to be so tied up with the 'strings of attachment'. I am as spell bound, as enchanted, as smitten, and as head-over-heels as I was a decade back. This guy still has me wrapped around his little finger!

I just have to write this..

..to make it bearable! My little Pari turns 5 today. Yes you heard it right - Pari is 5 years old now. I am mom to a 5 yo. Now, can you imagine that I am not with her for our big day? I feel miserable, have been feeling that way for almost a week now, and the miserableness doesn't appear to be wearing off at all. If anything, it continues to grow on me, hopefully it will peak today and start waning from the day after. For now, lets just wish my little girl a very happy 5th. The last year has been tough for her, spent away from parents. She does have the most wonderful set of grandparents and an awesome pair of Mausi's, but in my heart, I can always feel her craving for us as much as we crave for her. I hope this year brings us back together as a family. Now, this is what I have to say to my darling daughter. I have missed you my little baby, but I must say I am very very proud of the way you have conducted yourself. Despite being totally uprooted, you have spread so much laughter and joy in the family. You have adjusted so well to the new place, new way of life, new school and new family. And you have learned so much in the last 9 months, much more than I can even hope to touch upon during my MBA course. In fact, I don't think I really need to wait for you to grow up to read this post, you can probably read and understand some 70% of it already, and copy this in your notebook in under half-an-hour. This when you couldn't as much as hold a pencil this time last year. Now, I see you copying sentences from Mausi's Electronics textbook. Can't say how relieved and assured I feel, it is not just my spine that you have inherited! My heart swells with pride when I hear you using words like 'Lahuluhaan' and 'khoobsoorat'. And you have evolved into such a granny.. always worried about the rest of us. Be it Nani who you forced into a strict exercise regime within days of your arrival--'I don't want my Nani to be so fat!', or Mausi E, who won your sympathy as soon as she moved in with you. The fact that she is away from her parents, just the way you are, meant you could connect with her in no time. The 15 yrs between the two of you not withstanding! Your concern for people knows no limits, as you worry about whether 'Chachi is taking good care of Chia' or 'is Dadi taking care of herself'. When it comes to Mumma, you have different concerns, mostly whether Mumma is studying well, and if her teacher scolds Mumma. You always try to make life simple for us. For instance, on Chia's birthday, you very generously made the suggestion-'Mumma, get me my birthday gift too, baad me easy rahega'. Too bad we did not avail the offer! Though I did get you a gift for you birthday, it is still not easy being away from you on this day. Here is Mumma wishing you all the health, happiness and peace on your special day. With all her love.

Joka Diary - 8

This might be a short post, depending on when the cab turns up. I am going to Europe on a short study tour. So going forward, the title would temporarily read as 'Europe Diary', that is if I write at all! Study tour is a complete misnomer, the schedule provided by the college doesn't show any studies, and neither do we intend to do any. So it is basically going to be a vacation in the midst of our MBA course.

To say that I am excited is an understatement. I am that, and more. To be honest, I am petrified, so darn scared that I have tidied up my flat just in case I don't return and they need to break in. I have said my goodbyes to family and friends, and to Pari and Chia. No, I don't think I dying, not so soon in any case, but I fear getting lost and stranded. We are a group of 20 people traveling to Dubai from Kolkata, and to London from there on. It is me and 19 men. I hope that at least one of them remembers that I exist. Once in the flight, I will start worrying about dying from hypothermia and catching pneumonia. A girl has every right to fear for her life and well-being.

On the brighter side, the husband was here for the last 5 days. We spent a lot of quality time together - shopping, eating and more shopping. So well, it wasn't just time that we spent, a lot of money went down the drain as well. To give some credit to self, for once, I have tried to act unlike myself, which means sensible. I have made all the effort to not get carried away, trying to restrict my shopping to essentials, keeping the baggage allowance in mind all the time. Pat on the back!

Alright, the cab is here. You take care and stay good. I will try to do the same. So long!

The Annual Day - First vs Second

[Warning: Long post, non-parents and disinterested men - please excuse!]

Pari had her Annual Day last Saturday, and as is the norm in this house, the parents were over-excited and hyper-ventilating while the child was calm and contained like a seasoned zen-practitioner. Since her last annual day is also so fresh in memory, mostly due to repeated watchings of the recording, a comparison seems inevitable. I had not done a post on that one owing to severe disappointment and a major heartbreak, and this looks like an opportune time to reflect on that as well.

To begin with, last year was Pari's first year in the montessori, and there was no dress code for her. This was a real sticky situation to be in because it meant that we could dress her up just anyway we wished and hence triggered a mad rush for the best possible dress. My heart was set on dressing her in a white satin and net frock, similar to one she had as a baby. Yes, I am superficial like that. We spent 2 long evenings checking out almost every shop of repute that stocked children's apparel, but couldn't find anything even close to what we had in mind. Pari ended up wearing a dress that was already part of her wardrobe. This year, she is among the older lot and was instructed to wear black tights with a plain, bright-coloured t-shirt without any logo or design. This wasn't easy either. With a reasonable effort we could get tights in her size but the shirt was very very difficut to find, specially because her size is so small. To cut a very long story short, we went to almost 40 shops over 3 days and couldn't find an absolutely plain T for her. Finally settled down for a UCB collared T, with the logo in silver. Thankfully they make their logos small and so it wasn't very conspicous.

The following noteworthy conversation happened during the marathon shopping session-

On entering the mall
Pari: Mumma, the smell of french fries is coming.
Me: Hmm.. okie. I'll buy you some. (Get her FF.)

As we enter a huge store
Pari: Mumma, the smell of toys is coming.
Me: ???

I don't know what toys smell like, but Pari sure has a sharp nose. The other day, I gave her khichdi, she remarked - Mumma, this is yummy. It smells of so much ghee.

So much for the deviation.. Pari defined 'Pink Saree' as the dress code for mumma, and mumma complied with it very sincerely. Papa was free to wear anything he fancied, who looks at men anyways and even a child as young as Pari knows it. I woke up on the D day with a stiff body, probably because of the anxiety. I remember similar symptoms before the annual day last year too. Flashback begins - Pari would repeat what looked like the script of some children's play, sing multiple songs with some random dance, get into yoga positions and all such things. We were happy to believe that she is participating in a big way. However, on the annual day, all she did was recite some nursery rhymes. Immediately after the rhymes got over, the Principal said - 'Now all the babies come over here', and she very gracefully obliged by moving to a corner with some 10 other tiny tots. The rest of the 1 hr program was taken forward by the older children. Disappointment is a mild word to describe what we felt. And during the course of the program, we realised she had been mouthing lines from the play meant for older children. Flashback Over!

This time around, Pari was actually part of almost all the activities. She is a big child now and the school knows it. She was part of the initial prayers, Yoga demonstration, and danced to Anjaana-Anjaani song with rehearsed actions. In fact, after the program, a couple of moms actually came over to say that she dances well! I think it was really kind of them to observe that, I being a mean mean mom, had eyes only for Pari. Actually I was capturing her on reel and had to zoom in to figure her out well. She is still tiny compared to the other children, and easy to loose in a group performance. And then there was the Gruffalow play. She played a snake there, trying to prey on a mouse. It was hilarious in more ways than one. Since the mouse was the central creature with lots of lines to remember and blurt out, it was played by a child in UKG. All the children playing predators to the mouse, like the owl, snake and such were actually nursery kids, half the size of the mouse. And just before the play began, the Principal came over and instructed the children to just say their lines, and not the other child's. That was some comic relief.

We returned home a very happy and proud family. Husband immediately sat down to finalize the DVD, so that copies could be made and distributed to anxious grandparents, aunts and uncles of the child. He kept the handycam for finalization on the dining table and sternly warned Pari and me to keep off the table lest we shake the handycam, only to bump into it himself seconds later. The copying got interrupted and we had to restart it. Once it was done, we played it in the DVD player only to realise that the DVD wasn't working. I started screaming at the poor man for spoiling my child's annual day recording. You see, I had not enjoyed her performance live because I was so keen on preserving it for posterity. And he had spoiled it all by bumping in the table and shaking the handycam. In his defence, the husband suggested that probably the DVD player is not working. How I hoped this would be the case! However, it did not play on his laptop as well. The happy family turned into a warring family and lot of melodrama ensued. Luckily, my laptop could play it, and saved us from an imminent divorce.

PS. Whoever has shown the courage to go through this mammoth post, will be rewarded with the pics of the Annual day in the next post, hopefully!

New member in the family :)

My little Pari is now an elder sister. 'Pari Didi'- goodness, that sounds so amazingly high-handed, but its true all the same. And the coincidence lies here - I became a Didi on Sep 20th, Pari managed to beat me by one full day and 2 hours! Unlike me, who had a brother, Pari has a beautiful little sister to love, pamper and boss around. Yes, she is gorgeous from what we have heard so far - almost like Pari(my imagination, not confirmed yet) but with a lot more hair(confirmed) on that tiny head. The pictures are on the way.. will upload them soon. Please wish the proud new parents(Chachu & Chachi) and all of us a lot of luck with the little princess.

Edited to add: *Drumrolls* Here she comes..

Now what did I say, isn't she the most lovely?

Looking forward to..

..nothing!! The much anticipated trip to home is at its fag end, and the situation at home is exactly what we left it at. I am scared to return to Bangalore. To be honest, it was not so much about attending the sibling's wedding, and meeting the family as getting a break. I have been struggling endlessly since Feb 6th, which was when the last maid left. So when I left Bangalore on June 6th, all I was looking forward to was getting fed without having to cook, having the baby off my head for at least a couple of hours and return with a maid. All of it materialised except for the maid. This implies that by weekend, I shall be forced to rely on my own 2 feet and 2 hands to feed 3 mouths, along with the 9-6 office. And Bangalore traffic!

This is getting just too depressing. Let me think of the good things which I could look forward to. There aren't many but we shall still make an effort.

• The heat, yes I'll get to escape the terrible weather there. It will probably be still raining in Bangalore. Also, I am longing for the humble fan in my Bangalore bedroom that I can turn off as and when I feel. I don't get along too well with the air conditioner, and wake up shivering every morning. The sad part is that I cannot even turn it off. There are 4 other people sweating in the same room, and then, I don't even know how to switch off the darn thing.
  
• The husband will be back to his normal self, transforming into spouse and father from his current VIP persona, son-in-law and son, which effectively means that he can be pulled down from the revered pedestel and treated like ordinary mortals.
  
• The baby is also behaving a tad weird. I think all the extra attention from the doting grand parents, uncles and aunts has swiftly made way to her head and she is acting unreasonably pricey. I so look forward to my well-behaved, humble child.
  
• Being away from public eye! Yes, coming from an average, plain Jane, IT professional with no possible claim to fame, it sure sounds crazy but thats it. Living in Bangalore for the last
  7 years has accustomed me to living with a maximum of 3 folks in the house, be it roommates or family, and more importantly to doing exactly what I please, exactly when I wish. No, that doesn't make me a wastrel. I still manage the household and the family along with my work, all of which is pretty demanding (some superwomen definitely do it better, but I am happy being mediocre). It is just that I like to set my own priorities, like a dirty dish can wait if I need a nap post lunch. Also, I like to wear shorts when I give Pari her bath and not some 3K raw silk suit which is not done when you have 50 guests in the house. Remember, I live in Allahabad.. I missed you, my shabby shorts!

Alright. I feel better already.. Bangalore, here I come!

Pappu pass ho gaya!

Yes.. our little Pari has moved to the next grade, or so I think. We recieved the Progress Report today and I must admit it made us incredibly proud though there was no mention of any promotion. What it did say was that the child has mastered skills like pouring, rolling, napkin folding, dusting, sweeping, mopping(which I incidently read as 'moping' and agreed almost immediately) and chopping. Er.. are we sending her to the right place?? Anyways, there was also a mention of skills that needed more practice viz. lacing, button holes and tying belts. Lacing was kind of expected, since I couldn't tie my shoe laces till almost the 4th standard. I don't remember much trouble with buttoning, except that I often messed up the order missing a couple of holes in the process. And tying belts, how can I forget that.. my mom used to put elastic waist bands in all my pajamas because I could never tie those strings. So we can safely assume that the genes did trickle down.. and I am grateful for that. Because for all we know, she might just turn up pretty, bright and virtuous courtesy these very genes :) And not just that, all her following progress reports will be as delightful if not more :D

All in all, it was a good report and the Principal had only good things to say about Pari. I strongly feel she said the same nice sounding stuff to at least 95% of the parents and tried hard to explain the same to the indulgent father. The father, he needs a special mention here. We were required to reach the school at 9 am, and it is 200 meters from our house, ignore that we always take the car. Guess who was up at 7 am unlike on office days, took an elaborate bath, shampooed, shaved, pruned and emptied the D&G spray on self after dressing in his Sunday best on a Saturday... And who prayed an extra 10 minutes to ensure that the very important day went off well. Yes.. the father! He absorbed every word that the Principal uttered and broadcasted her feedback on Pari verbatim to all relatives, grand parents, aunts & uncles over the telephone. The old man has been sporting a very silly grin the entire day, and when I last checked on him, he was checking out trampolines on ebay. Offcourse, you would agree that daughter dearest deserves a special gift for her exceptional performance in the playgroup. He is the same man who has gifted me 3 Calvin n Hobbes paperbacks for the 3 birthdays I have had post wedding. How I wish that he had adopted me instead of marrying me!

Dussera Celebrations..

Pari had Dussera celebrations in her school last week. It is actually a playgroup, don't know why I keep calling it a school. Anyways, a note came from the Principal inviting all moms for participation. I was not so keen on going. I had some work planned for the day, and couldn't take it off. Moreover, I somehow always feel out of place in Pari's playgroup, nervous and naive. The other moms look so confident, and so grown up. Of late, I have been cursing my small built a lot. And the school gathering always triggers it. Actually I am not so small, Google tells me that the average height for Indian women is 5'1'', which means I am just 1'' short of the average. But then, I did not google the average weight, which might provide more clues. I have lost a lot of weight during the last year, and struggling to get to the 40 kgs that I was for most part of the last 6 years. No significant health issues other than the allergy, no drop in appetite and no increase in work load -- no reason that I can think of.. and still I am losing weight like there is no tomorrow. The last 3 months figures stand at 34.2, 36.7, 35.. and I feel just miserable. This is turning out to be a weight loss update more than an account of Dussera celebration. Excuse me for the digression, but this has been bothering me for some time now. Coming back to Dussera, the husband was more than eager to participate, but he wasn't invited. So finally, I decided to apply for a leave for the first half and work from home for the later half. Pari was required to dress up in ethnic wear, and we had a new lucknowi kurta/pajama just waiting for the occasion. The pajama was rather long for her, but you can always fold it and make do. As it turned out, the neck of the kurta was too small for Pari's head to pass through and the maid got it stuck there. It never occured to me that a dress which is clearly oversized for Pari can have such a small neck. I admit Pari has a rather big head, but still.. Anyways, we settled down for a lehenga. I wore a suit, counting on it to make me look older.. and off we went.
We walked down to the school, it is hardly 400 meters from our house. And it took us almost 20 minutes to reach there. It is always the husband who takes Pari for walks. I prefer taking the car even for small distances, like her school. So, I had almost forgotten how slow she walks, especially when there is so much distraction. Every parked car was noticed and its colour was reported diligently, umpteen attempts were made to pick all fallen flowers and all stray dogs were attended to, with extremely useful comments that provided deep insight like 'This doggy is hungry, ye dudu peeyega', and so on and so forth. It was almost like that sequence in Amelie where the heroine helps a blind man cross a street, all the while providing him with a rich description of the surroundings, that which was also reproduced in Ghajini. Honestly, I might as well qualify as a blind.. all these petty things gain significance if you look at them through a child's eyes.
The function started with some prayers, and then there was a dance performance by the children. They were all made to stand in a big circle, and given dandiya sticks to dance. Now, the kids did it fairly well, striking the sticks and dancing in the circle, all except Pari. She is actually the smallest in the group, looks the tiniest, and could only hold them sticks and jump all along. Despite a not so bright performance, she looked completely at ease and very excited. And suddenly, I felt my eyes well up... I really don't know why, I mean I am really not one of those sentimental moms but still. Before I realised, tears were streaming down my face, and the other moms were gaping at me. I guess babies do strange things to your psyche. On my way to the school, I had spent most of the time thinking of an excuse that would let me return home as quickly as possible and resume my work, but once there, I just didn't have the heart to leave early lest Pari missed out on one moment of the fun. So we ended up staying for the whole duration. Now, that was a pretty long account.. and to reward you for your patience, I'll leave you with a picture.

Recession Updates!

Got this in the mail today, and found it amusing.. So, sharing it with all.. Whoever thought of it, please do not sue me, I am only bringing appreciation to your work :)

1. Ali Baba and the forty thieves are now Ali Baba and the thirty thieves. Ten were laid off..

2. Batman and Robin are now Batman and Pedro. Batman fired Robin and hired Pedro because Pedro was willing to work twice the hours at the same rate.

3. Iron man now "air-pooling" with Superman to save fuel costs.

4. Women finally marrying for love, and not money

5. Q: With the current market turmoil, what's the easiest way to make a small fortune?
A: Start off with a large one.

6. The credit crunch is getting bad isn't it? I mean, I let my brother borrow $10 a couple of weeks back, it turns out I'm now America’s third biggest lender.

7. Q: Why have Dubai real estate agents stopped looking out of the window in the morning?
A: Because otherwise they'd have nothing to do in the afternoon.

8. Q: What's the difference between an American and a Zimbabwean?
A: In a few weeks, nothing.

9. Dow Jones is re-branded as "Down Jones".

10. Quote from a Wall Street banker: This is worse than divorce. I’ve lost half of my assets and I still have my wife…!!!!..

ps : On an unrelated note, I have enabled Adsense on the blog, which effectively means that I would be paid some amount if enough people click on the advertisements displayed on the right side and bottom of the post. Since I have a very selective readership, in order to make up for the numbers, request each of you to be kind enough to click at least 50 times on each of the ad's. Every penny counts in these times of recession..

pps : First thing in the morning, I wished the husband a very happy 'Husbands' Day'. Also, promised to cook a grand meal to celebrate 'his special day'. Poor thing, he is spending the day dreaming of the dinner at night. For people still wondering why, A Happy Fools' Day to you :)

Getting crafty..

It is our wedding anniversary tomorrow.. and as always, I have been racking my brains for the past 10 days, for what might be the ideal present. I like to work towards a present, and do not go for off-the-shelf stuff unless unavoidable. Now, this makes the otherwise simple job really complicated, especially since I run low on imagination and creativity. For the record, this will be our 3rd anniversary, and we could not celebrate the first 2. So just to make up for the lost occasions, I wanted to buy the spouse a platinum ring engraved with our names, with a solitaire if the budget allowed. Such was the plan till last week, before my organization axed some 10% of the total work-force. What followed were extremely low spirits and a drastic drop in my budget, from INR 25,000 to a meagre 500 rupees. I was more than willing to slash it further, but for anything less than that, the present would have reduced to a flower plucked from the neighbour's bush.. and they don't even plant roses! To cut a long story short, I decided to get crafty, pun intended :) I had wanted to do some glass painting since when I forget, and used this opportunity to fulfill that longing. After much deliberation, I decided upon a personalized calender with 'glass paintings' on transparent plastic sheets. Its come out looking rather childish, especially because I have done the calendar part manually. It would have looked far better with a printed calendar, there are plenty of cool options available on the internet for that but I just wanted to give it a more personal touch. Come to think of it, I could have got this whole personalized calendar thing made up with no effort, very little time, and markedly cheaper by placing an order on any of those websites and uploading a few family pics but I prefer it this way. No more rambling, here's presenting some pics. I know they are not impressive, but just want to share :)

Its my first birthday!!!

Yeah.. you read it right.. today is my first birthday, as a Mom. Last year, this very day I made a fresh beginning as my daughter entered this world. It was as new and unpredictable to me as to her.. Though she got born at half past ten in the morning, I gained consciousness only in the evening, and thats when I saw her first.. she was all wrapped up in sheets, only her tiny face was visible. And I could recognize her immediately, thanks to the numerous 2D and 3D scans that i had been through. She was actually the baby I had carried around for so long but it was altogether a different feeling as I held her in my arms. I would be lying if I say there was a sudden surge of motherly love when i first saw her. What I actually felt was more of confusion coupled with some disappointment. New-borns are seldom pretty and mine wasn't even round n cuddly.. And then, all that I had undergone to have her, right from the quesiness that I felt the first day of my pregnancy and which persisted till the last, to the fluid injected throughout the last month, and the planned ceaserean, all made me wonder if she was really worth all the effort. I certainly wasn't a very proud mother.

We both have come a long way from there. My daughter, we call her Pari, has grown up from a tiny newborn to a bright and completely amiable toddler. And I am now an exceptionally proud and indulgent mom. What an eventful year it has been! I lack the words to put down my thoughts, so I would rather put it in pictures. But hold on.. there is something we are missing..

'Happy Birthday' Pari, you are really my little fairy..