ALL IS WELL - Part 2

This post is going to be more about the trips that we undertook during the month of November 2011

Weekend at Mysore

J paati wanted to take us to Melkote Narasimhar temple as she read in a book that the deity is very powerful and can remove any kind of obstacles faced in our lives. K paati did not accompany us as it would be tiresome for her and stayed V athai’s house in Mylapore for the weekend. So we (Me, S, Chittu, S mama, J paati & thatha) started from Chennai on 5^th November early morning by Shatabdi express and reached Mysore by 1:30 PM. I had already made arrangements for the vehicle with the help of my friends (Thanks a ton B & D – you guys are really sweet…my kisses to H) and thatha had made arrangement for stay in his office guest house. The driver was waiting for us in the railway station and drove us to the guest house. We refreshed and started to Melkote around 3 PM. J Paati had carried the induction stove as usual and Chittu’s food was never a problem because of that. We reached Melkote by 5 or so and went to the priest’s house whom we knew through a reference from PS uncle. They gave us all the directions and we started climbing the steps that led to the Yoga Narasimhar shrine on top of the hill. On the way Chittu got to see her first rainbow and we captured it in the camera. We had a very good darshan and climbed down to Cheluva Narayanaswami temple (Chella piLLai) and had a serene and calm darshan there too. We had dinner at the priest’s house and came back to the room late in the night. Chittu started sleeping in the car itself and all of us were waiting to reach and hit the bed once we entered.

Next morning, we went to Chamundi Hills. There was a long serpentine queue and we got the Rs.100 special entrance and came face to face with Goddess Chamundeswari in a matter of 15 minutes. She was glittering in gold and red saree and adorned with flowers all over. We sat in the outer prakaram and recited our prayers. Throughout the trip S mama got a chance to experiment his photographic skills on Chittu and the nature with the outdated Nikon digi cam that we have J Chittu was so damn scared to stand alone near the Mahishasura idol & pose and kept crying asking us to lift her. We bought a couple of Mahishasuramardhini statues for our home and a soft giraffe back pack for Chittu. In the parking lot Chittu & thatha made friends with another toddler & her thatha. We did not have time to get down so prayed to the Nandhi in BULL temple from the car itself. We came back to the room, packed, had lunch at Hotel Guru Residency and took Shatabdi in the afternoon and reached Chennai in the night on Sunday. Throughout the trip Chittu was in full form and was extremely active keeping us engaged every single second. She liked the bread sticks given along with soup and kept biting it till the end.

Our 5^th Wedding Anniversay @ Hyderabad

The work pressure & heat that I was facing was really killing me. Many of my friends & relative pointed that I was losing weight and getting tanned. I badly needed a break and so we were off to Hyderabad to celebrate our wedding anniversay. Kutti thatha’s family stays there and they have been inviting us for a very long time. I was supposed to go there in March 2010 and got my tickets booked too, but later came to know that I was 6 weeks pregnant with Chittu and dropped the plan. Moreover, it was almost 15 years since I visited Hyderabad. By the time we decided our trip, the available tickets were minimal and we could book seats only in 3^rd AC (onward) and 2^nd AC (return). Me, S, Chittu, J paati & K paati started from Chennai by Hyderabad express on 9^th November. Whenever we travel out of Chennai we get packets of Aavin Delight milk (as Chittu is used to Aavin only) and this time was no different, just that we forgot to buy it before hand and keep. I realized when we were about to lock the door while leaving home and reminded J paati who bought it on the way to the station. The train was in the evening at 4.45 and departed at the right time. Chittu had great difficulty sleeping in the berth because of the space constraint but we somehow managed. Usually she needs a lot of space and she moves a great deal on the bed. I put her in one place and she would be in another place in an unimaginable direction the next morning. She got up in the middle of the night and befriended a young passenger who offered his headphones to entertain her. The train was late by an hour or so and we reached Hyderabad on 10^th morning at around 6. Kutti thata had come to the station to receive us. We reached home and Kutti paati took the traditional haarathi. She just loved playing with Twin mama  & Twin chithi – but called them Anna & Akka J as she is used to call people of that age so. She would drag their books and would be about to tear it when one of them would come and take it off, by that time she would have moved to another target – a project work of theirs made of thermocol and the other would come rushing to save it and she would move over to their pencil box & scale. All in all it was a pleasant sight to watch. They also gifted me with a Salwar, S with a pant shirt, Chittu – a couple of cute frocks, K paati & J paati – a saree each. Kutti paati had prepared paayasam & a delicious meal as it was our wedding day. We had a sumptuous brunch at 10 and left to SalarJung Museum.

Day 1 – SalarJung Museum, Charminar, Golconda fort, Skandagiri & Baba temple

We reached in time to see the musical clock strike 12. The attractions that I specifically liked there were the double statue (which looked like a man on one side & woman on the other which can be seen in the mirror) Rebecca statue (a marble statue of a lady carved beautifully that even the veil & the skirt looks so real). Photography is prohibited inside the museum.

We came out of the museum at 2.30 or so and went to Charminar. They were allowing people to the top of Charminar but it was so crowded so we just took pictures went to a nearby Masjid which had many pigeons. I thought Chittu would enjoy the birds, but somehow she didn’t like it because the kids around weren’t allowing the birds to flock together and shooing them away. Even I couldn’t click proper photos so we left the place very soon

From Charminar we drove to Golconda fort and reached there by 4.30 or so. There were a number of guides offering their service but we did not take any. It was told that if someone clapped their hands in the fort’s main gate it would be heard at the top most point – a security alarm system kind of a thing if someone enters the fort / used for communication among soldiers at various points. Also there was one place which would be cooler when compared to the others – but I didn’t feel any difference. We walked to the top of the fort which had a structure similar to charminar though it had only 2 minars. Enroute we also saw the prison where Saint Ramadas was jailed for he used the government taxes to build a temple for Lord Rama in Bhadrachalam. Scriptures say that Rama & Lakshmana came in the form of humans and repaid Ramadasa’s debt and got a voucher signed by the king in return & the voucher was found under Ramadasa’s bed in the jail when he was released. The architecture of the fort is really amazing and the gardens were so beautiful.

We came back at around 8, had hot idlys and chutney for dinner which was prepared right in time by Kutti paati. Being our wedding day, we wanted to go to a temple. So went to a nearby temple Skandagiri maintained by Sankara mutt. The area had a lot of Tamilians around. The temple was under renovation and that day being Ippasi Pournami, Annabhishekam was going on for Lord Shiva. Skandagiri temple has Lord Hanuman at the foot and Lord Subrahmanya with his family atop. The temple had lift facility also making it easy for elderly people. We also went to the Sai Baba temple as it was a Thursday. The Baba here was much younger when compared to those we had seen till date. We couldn’t stay until Haarthi time and they were not starting it even at 9.15 PM. So we came back and called it a day.

Day 2 – Yadagiri Gutta, Surendrapuri, Birla Mandi, Lumbini Park, Buddha Statue

The next day we started a little earlier by 9 and headed to Yadagiri Gutta – Sri LakshmiNarasimha Swamy temple on the top of a small hill. It was a far off from the place we stayed and we reached around 12 noon. It is a cave temple and after darshan we came out and read Narayaneeyam & prostrated with Karaavalambam. At the foot of the hill is Surendrapuri – a spiritual village / theme park which had huge more than life size idols and sculptures depicting various stories from the Hindu mythology. There is a temple associated with it which has shrines for Lord Shiva, Hanuman and Vishnu. We had time only to go to the temple and the theme park was too huge to be covered in a short time. On top of that all of us were very hungry. So we decided to make it in the next trip and headed back home. Entrance ticket to Surendrapuri – Rs. 200 on weekdays / 300 on weekend. Photography is prohibited.

At home we hogged the hot dosas, God only knows how many I had. It felt like I was having it endlessly J We got ready and went to Birla Mandir – Balaji Temple. Here again we had a lift for the elderly people. Initially we didn’t know where the lift was, so we climbed up via stairs. But while coming down, we got to know where exactly the lift was and used it much to K paati’s convenience. Photography is prohibited here too. From there, we went to Lumbini park and Kutti paati, thatha and the twins joined us. Chittu enjoyed the swing and fountains in the park. I wanted to do the trampoline but J paati just refused to let me go. We watched the laser show which was really marvelous – but the disappointment was that laser is only for a short while and the dancing fountains eat up the majority of the time. We went for a boat ride in Hussain Sagar lake which took us to the Buddha statue where we alighted and spent sometime. This statue which is in the middle of the lake is the largest single stone statue of Buddha carved out of white granite rock. This place is also called the Gibraltar Rock Island.

Day 3 – Ramoji Film City

Chittu was sleep deprived for the 2 days. Throughout the day she slept for hardly a couple of hours on both the days and got up earlier than usual too. Having seen her lose sleep for 2 days in a row, we decided that J paati, K paati & Chittu would stay at home on day 3 while me & S would go to the Ramoji film city. We started in the morning at 8 AM when a bus picked us up from Secundrabad Railway station. After going rounds and rounds inside the city picking up people at different points, we reached the film city at 10.45 AM. We purchased the entry ticket which costed Rs. 600 per adult and continued our bus journey which took us to the entrance of the studio. First thing that stuck me was the vastness of the place. It was HUUUUUUGE. We entered into the Eureka area. To its right is Fundoostan and to its left is Wild West and Hollywood sections. The opening and closing ceremony of the studio happen in this area every day. Eureka also has all the rides & restaurants. Our first stop was at Fundoostan – a dedicated area for kids with statues of Little Hanuman, video games, boot house, structures in the shape of cool drinks bottle / cone ice cream, etc. There we got to watch a cultural show which included a welcome dance, juggling, gymnastics, etc. It was interesting and reminded me of circus performances. The entrance to Wild West and Hollywood has huge fort styled doors which open from top to bottom and has a chain attached. We have to walk on those open gates (it would have water beneath) as we enter, and we see Chanakya restaurant with the statue that I suppose is Chanakya’s. I saw the song “Sandhoshi” from the movie Baba and realized the film was shot in Ramoji. I even spotted the Angel fountain from Ramoji in the same song.

We watched the “Spirit of Ramoji” show which was a dance performance that didn’t impress me much except the rope dance that was performed by a girl who was bending around like a rubber. We had lunch at one of the restaurants in Eureka and went on to the “Filmy Duniya – The ultimate movie making experience”. This is a must watch in the studio where they show us how a movie is actually made. An artist is selected from among the audience. The scene was from Sholay and a small girl of around 12 volunteered to do the acting. She was dressed up with half saree & all. There was a seat with a cover which resembled a tanga and there were reins. The girl was made to sit there and hold the reins. The seat had a long bar extending from it and a little boy from the audience was asked to shake the bar vigorously and the seat started shaking making it look like the tanga is running on a rocky area. The anchor asked the girl to imagine there were horses attached to the reins and she was Basanti and there were dakus following her on horse back. He also asked her to give a panic expression and act as if she is riding the horse and checking if they are following or not. The girl did is beautifully and this was shot in the camera. Then we were taken to the next room – Sounds booth. A group of small boys were called and asked to make sound with a slim tin plate which gave the sound of storm, throw sand from to top to bottom which produced the sound of rain, jump rhythmically which produced the sound of horses. Then the final room is the editing and mixing booth where they had added the video of horses, dakus, rain, surroundings, etc and it looked real as if the little girl who was amongst us was followed by a mob of angry dakus on a stormy rainy night. Ammmmazing and the anchor was damn good. The Hollywood section was a replica of HOLLYWOOD of SFO with the words and a flying helicopter on the top of a mountain. Then we went on a bus ride which starts from Eureka and takes around the studio showing us many fountains / tall buildings / sets used for shootings / hotels where film stars stay when they come to RFC for shooting. There was a replica of Brindavan Gardens & Ajanta-Ellora caves, Moghul Gardens, Hawa Mahal, streets that look like foreign countries, hospital set (where Munnabhai was shot), airport set with a dummy aircraft (Ra-one airport fight was shot there it seems), local streets set (the houses in these streets have only entrance door, inside it was vacant land J there was no flooring also), railway station, etc. Once the ride was over, we came back to the Wild West for the live stunt performance. It was all very good, amazing performance by fighters, but the choreography was very clumsy making it difficult to understand why people of fighting and what is the cause. We ended our day with a couple of rides and I shouted my heart out when the Ranger went upside down. Our water bottle fell down from a 40-50 feet height when we were hanging there inverted. We missed the Ramoji tower as we had postponed it to a later point and completely forgot about it.

We took the return bus at 5.30 and reached home at 8.30 after getting stuck in a very bad traffic. We were dead tired but it was really worth the visit. It reminded me of the various theme parks I had visited in the US everything (hospitality, announcements, water points, refreshments etc) were upto the mark, just that the restrooms can be maintained better, directions need to be a bit more clear. All edible stuff inside was almost 1.5 times costlier!!! May be Mr. Ramoji can consider cutting down the cost of entry ticket & refreshments inside as this is not his only source of income J

Day 4 – 4D show at iMax, NTR Gardens

Sunday morning dawned lazily. We had Pongal for breakfast and all of us went to Naivedya for lunch. Later went to Prasad Imax studios for a 4D show. Chittu was not allowed inside so kutti thatha and she stayed back roaming around the complex. It was everyone’s first time in a 4D show except me & the twins and all of them had a different experience. Kutti paati was scared to her wits and me & her daughter sat on either of her sides and gave her all the courage JIt was a 20 minutes show and the first 10 mins was a science fiction stuff which was OK and the remaining 10 mins was Genie freeing a princess which I enjoyed. Then we walked down to NTR gardens and took a number of snaps. Around 4.30, we came back home, packed and left for the railway station. Our train was at 6.45 and was delayed by almost an hour. We boarded the train in Secundrabad where the train used to stop for 10 minutes or so. Kutti thatha came with us inside the coach to arrange our luggage. It being an AC compartment, none of us realized the train movement. Someone told us that the train had already started and he just had to literally jump out, fortunately the train had just started moving and hadn’t gained speed. Return journey was a smooth one and we came home at around 10.30 AM. J paati & S went to office while I worked from home

Overall it was a very very pleasant trip which offered me the much needed break. It was relaxing and enjoyable. Everything was arranged by my chithappa (cab, sight seeing itenary to the level of how much time to spend in each place, etc) and chithi made sure our stomachs are full always J I will never forget my 5^th wedding anniversary!!

ALL IS WELL - Part 1

I have had an extremely worse office schedule because of a poorly performing team and as a result - a completely dissatisfied client manager. Had to put in a lot of extra effort and do some ground level work to get things back in shape. So a typical day would start with a morning call at 9.30 and return time is not assured – varies anytime between 8 and 10.30 PM. I was roaming around like a zombie with no time for anything at all. Still things are not completely alright, but atleast kind of under control. To top it all, I had certain differences of opinion with the management. After a number of escalations and meetings, I have been promised that all my issues will be taken care of in March 2012. If not, then maybe I don’t have a choice other than to move to a different company. But the problem is no other company can offer the work environment and flexibility this one offers. At the same time I know that I can’t have the cake and eat it too. Let me see. Amongst all these, my only solace was the good time that I spent with Chittu. She surprises me everyday with something new and the time I play or cuddle with her or put her to sleep or take her out for a small walk or ride or talk to her, all my problems take a back seat and I get myself drowned into those enjoyable moments not thinking about anything else.

Ooru vittu ooru vandhu

First things first – We have shifted from our own house in the heart of the city to the rental house in suburbs on August 28^th 2011. We decided not to have packers & movers, so I & S started packing 2-3 weeks before. But with Chittu around, even possible is impossible. On 27^th evening, the house was still half full. So we decided that we would put Chittu to sleep early at 8 or 8.30 PM and do a night out to finish packing. But the little missy slept only by 10.30 and got up promptly by 1 all crying and we just couldn’t do anything after that. So all of us went to bed and with great difficulty made her sleep by 2. Me & S had to get up at 4 as we had asked the truck to come at 7. They started loading packed boxes as we were still bundling up the remaining. Finally we left at around 9 AM. Chittu was still sleeping and got up in time when we entered the new house. J paati, thatha, S mama were all there and we performed a small pooja and boiled the milk. Settling down with all arranging took almost 2 – 3 months because of various good and not so good happenings in the extended family but now we are all set. The first function that we celebrated in the new house was PiLLayar Chathurthi on 1^st September. We had bought a clay Ganesha idol and did a quick and simple pooja as we had to leave for P akka’s viratham function

Bottomline: Packing all by yourself is a difficult job, doing it with an extremely mobile 9 month old makes it real tough

Kannan vandhaan

Gokulashtami was on August 21st – comfortably on a Sunday. It was Chittu’s first Gokulashtami and both me & S were excited for our krishnar. We planned things well on Saturday itself and bought chart paper, golden sheet, peacock feather, friendship band,etc. With the little craft that I know and guidance from S, I made the kreedam with chart paper and stuck the golden sheet on it. Took an old magazine, rotated it to form a thin long cylinder, tied both the corners and stuck goldn sheet on it. Had some old golden coloured danglings which I tied to one corner  – and flute was ready. S took one of his brand new angavasthrams and did a trial run of panchakacham on Chittu. On Sunday evening, I prepared the ezhai kolam maavu and put “krishnar kaal” by dipping Chittu’s legs into the dough and imprinted it on the floor. But actually speaking the shape doesn’t come out properly when you do that when compared to the kutti legs that we put manually. However, it was fun, though Chittu was a little scared that we were doing something unpleasant to her. Then S tied the panchakacham, I put her single krishnar kudumi and inserted the peacock feather, put on the necklaces & golden aranaakayaru, friendship bands became vangi on the arms, placed the kreedam and gave her the flute and our cute krishnar was ready!! We took numerous photographs and she posed beautifully, though was a little cranky towards the end as the ornaments started irritating her. All 3 of our dinner was delayed that day, but she adjusted very well and didn’t make a big fuss.

Kalyanamaam kalyanam

P akka’s wedding on 2^nd September was a grand occasion. For Chittu, I had bought a bluish green silk cotton pattu pavadai which she wore for the muhurtham and a cute mini skirt and blouse with floral prints which she wore for the maapiLLai azhaippu. Her hair had grown longer and we started adopting the rettai kudumi rengudu style. We stayed at U athai’s house which was closer to the marriage hall and made umpteen shuttles to & fro– not to forget all the decking up & the sumptuous food 3 times a day. A anna had come and exclaimed “She looks the same as I saw her 4 months back”. H akka mentioned “Looks like all the dresses that I had bought for her will fit her only after 1 more year” Chittu enjoyed all the pampering and was behaved so well. She ate and slept at the right time and did not give me any trouble at all. She even coped up with all the exchanging done among multiple pairs of hands. The photographer had snapped many photos of Chittu and they have come out very well. She was so attached to PK – the groom that she sat on his lap in the maapiLLai azhaippu car. The next day during reception, she refused to go to P akka to pose for the photo but jumped over to PK with a wide grin. The wedding ceremony got over on the 3^rd day afternoon with kaatu saadham and we took rest at U athai’s and came home that evening.

Navarathri

We had kept kolu this time at the new home. We invaded K paati’s room to arrange kolu because we were not sure how Chittu would react to the dolls if they were kept in the hall. This room was an easier option  for we can close the door and keep her at bay. But she just loved those dolls. During navarathri time, she learned to clasp her hands whenever we said “Ummachi kaapaathu” and to do the “namaskaram”(actually she kisses the ground J) She also learnt to put thaalam when we sing “SA RI GA MA” Whenever we entered the kolu room, she would promptly clasp her hands and do the namaskaram. The wax fruits and vegetables that we had kep was her favourite and she just loved them. S perimma had bought a pant – shirt for her, J paati got her a couple of denim frocks and T paati also got her a new frock.

Deepavali thala Deepavalai

It was Chittu’s thalai deepavali this time – 26^th October. She got up at around 8.30 AM and had her mangaLa ganga snanam with “Gowri kalyana vaibogame”. S mama came in and we had a lengthy photo session. I had bought her a pair of pedal pushers and cuddle neck full hand t-shirt. She was a red beauty that day. She didn’t get scared with the crackers sound but somehow she didn’t like them much when we gave a sparklers to her. During Diwali time, she could stand without any support when we make her to. T paati got her a new frock and J paati also got her a pinafore. Morning was spent in our home and evening at J paati’s home. The day ended with crackers bursting which Chittu just watched without any expression on her face.

Shirdi

Shirdi trip was an eventful one. Chittu, who had slept in an untime, at 8.30 PM, got up at around 9.30, played and went back to sleep at 11.30. Me & S had a short nap of 2 hrs and got up at around 1.45 AM while Chittu was still dozing. Both of us got ready, I prepared both boiled rice and ragi porridge for Chittu. I changed her & put on her kudumi while she was sleeping. Thankfully I had done all the packing the previous Sunday itself and that helped a great deal. Chittu woke up by 3, but was still in mabbu and was saanjufying in S’s shoulders. The cab came in at 3.15 and we reached the airport at 3.45. J paati, thatha and S mama had come to the airport directly and were already there. Chittu was wide awake by then and time was just right for baggage check in, boarding pass collection and security check. Chittu had her own boarding pass and her first bus journey was from the gate to the aircraft J We boarded the flight and took some pictures there. It was too difficult to make her sit in one place during the 1.5 hour journey. Within 30 minutes from take off, there was a sharp uncontrollable cry from Chittu. Poor baby, last she had was milk at 2 in the morning an by 5.30 or so she was hungry to the core. I gave her puzhungal arisi kanji and she ate it eagerly and fell asleep.

We were a group of 28 members including the guide and two cameramen who were shooting the entire trip on behalf of the travels. A bus was arranged for the whole trip. Our first stop was at Ranjangaon – Mahaganapati temples, one of the AshtaVinayaks. We had a good darshan, took some photos. We also so a number of Chittukuruvis – which are kind of becoming extinct due to radiation. I wanted to take a picture of my Chittu with Chittukuruvi, but both of them refused to pose properly J We halted in a restaurant for breakfast and proceeded to Shani Shinganapur. The guide who accompanied us told that the houses in the village did not have doors at all and Shani Bhagwan protects the house from theft and other risks, though we did not see any house around. Shani here is a swayambu stone in the form of the number 1. People pour gingely oil in a huge drum and there is a tubular connection between the drum and the non-stop dhaarai which hangs above the shani statue. From there we reached Shirdi at around 3 PM and checked in at Hotel Saish. Had a sumptuous lunch in the Bayaja Maa restaurant attached with the hotel. The rooms were clean and we took rest for an hour or so. Around 5, we reached the temple and it was a different experience for me as I was going there after 22 long years and did not remember a single thing!! We prostrated to Lord Ganesha, Shani & Mahadev and proceeded to the Samadhi mandir.Thatha’s acquaintance helped us out here too and we had a VIP darshan for the 6 PM Dhoop haarthi. There was a lot of crowd – given that it was a Thursday, it was more crowded and the push and pull was worse than Tirupathi temple. But we stood at around 50 feet from Baba and had a good darshan for close to 20 – 25 minutes. The priests performing haarathi and the temple incharge stood in the front and we couldn’t see the entire murthi, but the face was clearly seen and is etched in my memory. Later, we worshipped Gurusthan – the neem tree under which Baba’s guru resides. We also went to Dixit Wada, which is now the museum which has the treasured original pictures of Baba, the kafni he wore, the cot in which his last rites were done, the pots and padukas that he used, the phalki and chariot which were donated, etc. It being a Thursday, the Phalki procession was supposed to start at 8.45, but we were left with a very short time to go have dinner and come back. And there was a heavy rush outside Dwarakamayi and Chaavadi and we were not sure if we would be able to safeguard Chittu in such a heavy crowd. So decided to see Phalki some other time and went to have dinner.

Post dinner, we went for the Shej haarathi in the non-VIP darshan. I had goose bumps when I sang Ovaalum haarathi and related it with the regular Baba mandir we used to visit every Thursday and sing the same song. I even managed to find a gap through which I could see Baba clearly. Once haarathi was over, they closed the screen immediately and we couldn’t see the mosquito net being hung over the murthi and Samadhi. On our way back, we bought some souvenir and were back in the hotel room by 11.30. Chittu was highly co-operative and had kanji and Nestum at regular intervals. She cried a little bit during Dhoop haarathi as there was a lot of crowd and she was not in a very comfortable posture. But otherwise, she was an adorable kid and slept throughout the night in the new place too.

Next morning, all of us got up at 4.45 and were ready by 6.15 for our next darshan. First we went to Dwarakamayi, saw the Dhuni and Baba’s usual resting place. From there we went to Chavadi. There is a separate entrance for ladies and gents and we got to see a different portion of Chavadi. From Chavadi we went to Samadhi Mandir and had our good final darshan for the trip before we left. We stood in the queue and got a lot of udhi sachets to be given to friends and relatives. We came out through Lendi Bhagh – the garden which was maintained by Baba and also saw the well from which the Baba pulled water. We came back to the hotel, had breakfast, packed and set out at 9.30 AM to Bhimashankar – one of the 12 Jyothir lingams. It was a loooooong journey and it started raining half way through making it difficult to drive through the Ghat road. We got to see a lot of plush green scenic spots, for which Pune is famous, but couldn’t take pictures because of the heavy downpour. We halted in between for lunch and reached Bhimashankar at 5 PM. It was raining heavily and thatha carried Chittu with the umbrella which I had thoughtfully carried. Hawkers were selling plain plastic covers to be used as raincoats!!!!

Bhimashankar is a different place – here we walk down through a flight of around 200+ steps to reach the main diety. I am seeing it for the first time. Usually we climb up to see the Lord, but here we were climbing down. We had a good darshan, a family was performing puja to the shiva lingam, we got some vilvam leaves from them and did an archanai with mental prayers all by ourselves. We started from there around 6 and reach Pune at 10 in the night. Our flight was delayed by 3 hours. So our initial plan of skipping dinner was dropped and we had a sumptuous dinner. We spent a good 2 hours in the airport and finally reached Chennai at 4 AM. Chittu slept around 12 midnight in the Pune airport and continued her sleep throughout the flight and woke up the next day morning at 8. The trip was marvelous, but a little hectic because of the delayed bus journey due to rains and delayed flight. Chittu was liked by one and all in the group and we made many good pass-by-friends because of her J She was so very well behaved (Kaala tikka!!!) and looks like she has got the love-to-travel genes from me J

WFH

Mami was on unplanned leave on 25^th- Monday. I did not have any other option other than to work from home and with no one else to assist, it ended up in a disaster. Chittu thought it was a Sunday and wanted me to spend the entire time with her playing. If I leave her for a minute also, she started crying. And it was a challenge to keep her in the lap and work as she was keen in working on the laptop on my behalf with her own masterpiece keystrokes. To top it all, it being a Monday, I had a whole lot of deliverables and calls to attend. The sweet girl who used to sleep for 4 hrs straight after having pappu mammu at 9 in the morning did not sleep for even 2 hrs continuously. Same thing happened in the afternoon too, when I expected her to sleep for 2 hrs and she promptly got up in less than an hr. God only knows how I managed to push that day! It was so damn tough. And I decided then, that I am not going to take work from home option without a support. I seriously don’t know how people in the US manage this. Hats off to them!!

Today also mami is on leave – but this a planned one. I had taken WFH today too, but, I made S mama come over and take care of Chittu. I fed her in time and played with her in the little breaks that I took and things were a little better today. Thanks a ton Bro!

Tidbit updates – There is another 2^nd tiny white sprout on her lower jaw. She is in a biting spree now…and it hurts! I don’t know what we are going to do if she starts biting with fully grown milk teeth. Hope she doesn’t have her mom’s genes on this front. I am quite famous in the household for my bites that my chithis and athais talk about it in every family get together even after 25 odd years. Chittu is also biting her big toe – from 18^th June to be precise (I had a photograph to cross check the date J)This was something which I had been expecting her to do for quite sometime now – The Vadapathra sai / aalilai krishnar posture as I call it. She is the first baby whom I saw doing this act. All others, I had only heard. She was actually doing it occasionally since May, but it wasn’t perfect. Rather than lifting the leg, she used to lift her head. But now she does it in a picture perfect manner.

In the last week of June, Chittu had a terrible rash problem. It wasn’t a diaper rash. Actually, on a particular day, she pooped many times (though the consistency was normal) and because of that, what started as a dark reddish pink spot developed and became a severe rash. I don’t know what stopped me, but I did not go to the doc immediately for this. Actually the visit was due on July 2^nd – which was like a week from then. So I was ready to wait. And as per A&A’s advice in one of the previous posts, I liberally applied Vaseline many times a day for almost 5 days continuously. By the time we went to the doc, the rashes were almost gone. However, I explained it to her and as a preventive mechanism got a cream prescribed to cure it, if at all we face such a situation in future. We saw the photos taken in Guruvayoor during the Annapraasanam. They have come out very well and Chittu has a photogenic face J My colleagues from office came home to see Chittu. They had bought her a beautiful party frock and it looks damn good on her. When they were here, cameras were continuously flashing and a number of pictures have been taken. She played freely with them and they also enjoyed a great deal. Chittu in general has a soodu udambu. Most of the times her body temperature is .02 degrees above normal and by the time I decide to give her Crocin, it would cool down. Any new person lifting her would say “udambu konja sudra maadhiri irukke?” Initially I used to get panicked, but now I know that it is actually not fever but just body heat.

Ok, got an early morning flight to catch and we have to leave by 2.45 AM. I am thinking of not sleeping at all because, as I type this at 9.15 PM, Chittu is fast asleep on my lap for the past 45 mins or so and this is untime for her nap (which she rarely does). I am sure by the time she gets up and goes back to her 2^nd round of sleep, it will be 1. And the time would just be enough to get ready, prepare something for Chittu, pack and start. We will be back on Saturday early morning. This is Chittu’s first flight journey. And majority of the time, we will be travelling on road during this trip. Not sure how she would behave. Hope things are smooth as her first train journey to Guruvayoor. Let us see!!

Sit, Stand, Crawl, Shout, Speak & Bite

When you write after a very long time, you tend to miss out some information inspite of your super duper memory power. That is what had happened with me. When I re-read my earlier “Vandhuttomla” posts, I realized that I haven’t covered a few updates. And here I am trying to cover up everything till date.

The way S mama’s “Cho chweet” provoked non-stop laughter in Chittu, the same thing happened for “ellam nee than”, “chill chill chill”, “oops…oops”, “Twaing…pishku” etc. But none of these lasted for more than a few hours. If you expect her to laugh the same way for any of these in a matter of 3 hours, she won’t. The charm for that phrase would be lost by then.  If she is holds onto something and starts chewing it up (like the power chord of laptop, clothes, S’s leather belt, unclean items, etc) and we lift her thinking that we are taking her away form it, the chaalu girl would tightly hold on to it and lifting her from that place wouldn’t serve the purpose. The talent of scanning the floor and “porukki pottufying” continues with increased fondness. S says, because she is closer to the floor, she is getting a zoomed view of those tiny objects. Door stoppers are her favourite and she loves pulling them up and pushing them down. One of us continuously assume the duty of overlooking her always so that she doesn’t eat anything from the floor or hurt herself with the doorstopper / getting hit in the centre table / chair. Chittu’s hair has grown a lot and she adornes a cute single Krishnar kudumi most of the times. She can now shout like anything at the top of her voice, we call it “adi thondaila irundhu katharadhu”. She does this frequently and ends up with dry cough. If she has set a target is moving towards it and we try to divert her in between with something else, she doesn’t pay attention to it and would cleverly bypass it. It is amazing and scary at the same time, that at this age, this girl knows what she wants to do!! Also off late, she shows signs of being stubborn and adamant – adam as we call it. When we stop her from doing something, she scolds us in her own language.

Apart from boiled rice kanji, Chittu has started taking Raagi kanji with milk & sugar, Boiled veggies (beans, potato, carrot, tomato with a tinge of salt, pepper, jeera powder and dhal) and Idly (with rasam / milk & sugar / dhal) Chittu’s 7^th month review got clubbed with the visit to doc for her fever / puking on June 2^nd. So I took her for 8^th month review on July 2^nd. We were supposed to start at 2.45 PM, but I had misplaced her health record and searched for it throughout the house only to find it in the usual place at 3.55. We rushed to the doctor’s clinic as she would leave by 4. Chittu’s weight gain was not as expected. She is underweight. Her weight at 7 months = What was expected at the 6^th month. However Dr.S said as long as she is active and playing, there is nothing to worry. She also prescribed Nestum Rice as an interim food for our Guruvayoor trip. After Annapraasanam we are giving dhal rice aka pappu mammu with ghee and little rasam or sambar thelivu. Chittu is taking it well. I am also planning to give her Pongal, Aavin milk and boiled apple, though the doc hasn't prescribed it yet.

We went for M akka’s wedding on June 19^th and 20^th. It was a grand ceremony and it was an inspiration for me as to how to conduct Chittu’s wedding 22 odd years from now J Someone or the other was carrying Chittu always and she had a good time. She had the vethu mugam syndrome with some, but gelled well with others. She had her own criterion set for it. Both the days, I got up early in the morning and prepared veggies, kanji and idly for her and packed it. It took solid one hour to cook and pack. M akka’s dad had sent us a Logan for our use on these two days and it was very comfortable. Thanks A aNNa!

Chittu met 4 very important milestones in the past 2 months. The title actually sums it all. Below are detailed descriptions in the order in which they happened   

Chittu can sit all by herself. Earlier she was trying to do it by turning on the sides and pressing her hand firmly on the ground, but couldn’t accomplish it and fell down a couple of times. But once she started doing yaanai yaanai it became a comfortable posture for her and she sat in Vajrasana by end of June. She is now adept in sitting from sideways too.

Chittu can stand now with support J This is a big milestone for her. She was trying hard since the end of last month, trying to catch hold of the sofa, chair, centre table, etc and accomplished it by the first week of July. Since then, she has this “standing attraction” (nikkara paithiyam as I call it) trying to hold anything and everything from bottles which are shorter than her when she is in her sitting posture to our knees, clothes, etc etc. She even fell down 3-4 times and cried, but didn’t leave the try until she was successful and is a pro now.

Chittu is teething. Another significant achievement. It was S mama who found that out first during our Guruvayoor trip on 17^th July when I made fun of him saying it could be a bit of puzhungal arisi kanji she had a few minutes back. But he said when she bites, it hurts a bit. And when I checked the next day – yes, there it was, a minute sprout of a tiny tooth in her lower jaw. Now she feels like biting anything and everything and all items are teether for her.

Finally Chittu can crawl…Yaaaaay! Something she had been trying to do for quite sometime. From last week, she started crawling. She would crawl two steps and then switch over to moving on her tummy. But for the past 3 days, she is completely crawling. Slowly but steadily. Looks like she has forgotten to move on her tummy J Seeing the way she is crawling, thatha calls her “namma aathu singa kutti” J

On 26^th June - the original plan was to go to Mahalingapuram Iyappan temple and read Narayaneeyam, but the temple cancelled the parayaNam due to some reason and so we went to Singaperumal Kovil to darshan Paatalaadhri Narasimhar and ChettipuNyam to darshan Devanaatha perumal & Yoga Hayagreevar. From there we were off to Madhuramangalam – I conceived Chittu immediately after doing a prarthanai here, so I wanted to take her to that place at the earliest possible. We started from J paati’s house at 9 Am and by the time we visited SP Kovil and started from ChettipuNyam near Chengalpattu it was 11.45. Madhuramangalam temple which was near Kanchipuram would close by 1 PM. It was a challenge. In order not to take any chances we called up the priest there and requested him not to close the temple before we come. Thanks to him, he waited for us and we had a good darshan of Vaikunta perumaL, Thaayaar and Embaar (brother of Ramanujar).

The new project which I have been assigned to is a migration of projects from the client side to our side. So we are having daily knowledge transition calls with those US clients from 6 – 8.30 PM. So my entire schedule became haywire. I go to office around 11.30 or 12 noon and I am back by 9 PM. The time I spend since I wake up till 11.30 is all that I get to spend with Chittu. By the time I am back, I am too tired and hungry and I have time only to change her and put her to sleep. Because maami leaves by 6.30 in the evening, J paati comes everyday after her office and takes care of Chittu until I am back. And after that she goes home. If not for J paati, I seriously don’ know how I could have managed all this. As soon as I am back from office, Chittu grins ear to ear, vigorously shakes her legs and comes rushing to me and refuses to go to anyone after that – including J paati & S. And I am back on my guilt ride for this helpless situation LAnd on top of it, we are not able to attend Baba haarthi for the past 2-3 weeks because of this extended work hours and I couldn’t do anything other than feeling bad about it L

I will have to go to the new far off office location from September 1^st onwards. So, after roaming around for almost 2 days in a particular weekend, we have found a rental house closer to J paati’s house which a mid point for both me and S. It is also near the railway station and makes it easier to commute for both of us. We will be shifting after mid of August. Infact, we have a flat in the same area. But I am not interested in disturbing my current tenants as they are a family who occupied the house this April and have a school going daughter for whom they recently arranged for school, van pick up, etc from that house. In the meantime we are also looking for a tenant to occupy our house here. I am planning to sell our sofa as I won’t be able to accommodate it in the new house and buy a 3 seater instead. Also there is no provision for window AC there and there is a space constraint for our dining table. So we will be leaving both in this house for the new tenants to use and maintain. Hope we get a good tenant and a prospective buyer for the sofa.

Chittu’s feeding bottle that V athai got for her during the puNyavaajanam got melted – Courtesy: ME THE GREAT. I had put it in a vessel for sterilizing and thought the vessel was a little small, but because I was planning to stand by the side of the stove until the sterilization is over, didn’t bother to change it to a bigger one. That was when I got a call from my close friend A and completely forgot about the bottle. By the time I remembered and rushed to the kitchen, the bottle had come in contact with the hot vessel and melted. Later that day S mama went and bought another new Avent bottle.

She speaks a damn lot these days. The words are in coherence with her mood. When she is angry – it is “ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya”, when she cries it is “ma ammmmaaa”, when she is simply sitting and doing something it is “pa appa appa”, when she wants to call someone it is “ai ai ai”.

So, with this back to back post, we are up-to-date with Chittu’s diary. However we still have a backlog in Picasa as far as the photo upload is concerned and I hope to complete it by tomorrow. With my KT sessions getting over by end of July, I hope to do the updates properly. And we are planning to go to Shirdi on 28^th and 29^th July. Praying to Baba that everything goes on smoothly. So we will be back with another travelogue soon. Until then, buh-bye J

Guruvayoor - Annapraasanam (or) Choroonu, Thulabaaram & Narayaneeyam

Get up at 7.30 ish in the morning – Spend as much quality time as possible with Chittu – Get ready and go to office at 11.30 ish – Internal team meetings throughout the day - 6.30 to 8.30 PM IST attend US client meeting – come back to home at around 9 – have dinner and sleep at 10.30. That more or less sums up my week day. Weekends are spent rejuvenating myself to face another hectic week. So that is the reason for not updating Chittu’s Diary though there are loads to be written about my darling daughter. But I would like to write this post exclusively on our Guruvayoor trip – on this day, when Chittu has completed her 8 months.

We had planned Chittu’s Annapraasanam (Choroonu) quite sometime back and had booked the tickets for me, S, K paati, J paati, thatha and S mama in Allepey express. J paati and thatha had booked their respective office guest houses too for accomodation. We couldn’t celebrate any function for almost 2.5 years as we were mourning for someone or the other in the close family circle. All of that got over on July 3^rd and we were ready to start to Guruvayoor on 15^th July 2011. I wanted to kick-off with an abhishekam to PiLLayar and so arranged for it on 14^th July in our aasthaana piLLayar temple. I had a prarthanai of breaking 108 coconuts when S was in the hospital after his accident, almost 4 years back. So took this opportunity and completed that one too. I prepared a big list of what all to pack for Chittu and it helped a lot as I started packing on 15^th morning only - thanks to my office schedule.

The arrangement was – J paati, thatha and S mama would come directly to Central, S, K paati and Chittu would start from home in call taxi, pick me up at my office and we would catch up with my parents in the station. The call taxi that I had booked sodhappidifed and came almost half an hour late. S was tensed as 72 year K paati had to walk to the platform (if we don’t get the Senior citizens vehicle – which we actually didn’t get) we had to carry all luggages and Chittu and catch the train in time. So he took a rick and started from home even before the call taxi arrived. I joined them mid way and we entered the compartment just 10 minutes before the train moved. Chittu slept by 10.30 and was a darling until 1 AM. I was awake all that time and slowly my eyelids started drooping at 1 when Chittu got up and was in her peak playful mood and was shouting on the top of her voice, throwing away all the toys which were caught in time by me / J paati so that it didn’t hit our sleeping co-passengers.

By 2.30 or so, S mama said he would take care of Chittu and thankfully I was able to catch some sleep after that. We reached Thrissur station at 6.50 AM and one of thatha’s acquaintances had offered his Innova for our use. The driver Jeyan was very friendly and helped us out throughout our trip. We reached Guruvayoor and all women stayed in one guest house and the men stayed in the other. J paati had bought a new induction stove exclusively for preparing Chittu’s kanji during the trip. Also, we don’t get Aavin milk in Kerala. So, I had bought 2 Aavin tetra packets, which needs no refrigeration and can be used for 60 days until it is opened. Because of all these preparations, Chittu’s diet schedule did not get affected much (just that we couldn’t give her veggies and idly)

Our plan was to have a darshan, read Narayaneeyam in the chuttambalam (another prarthanai which I had during S’s hospitalization) and on day 2 –Annaprasanam and Thulabaram for Chittu. We had our breakfast in Hotel Krishna Bhavan (awesome home made idlys – I would recommend this place for breakfast and dinner for anyone visiting Guruvayoor) We entered the temple’s main entrance from the East Nada and enquired for darshan, when the security there asked us if Choroonu is done for Chittu. We said, we had planned it for the next day. That was when he told us that Chittu cannot be taken inside Sree Kovil (sanctum sanctorum) before that. We didn’t know about this custom. So, we thought that it was Guruvayoorappan’s wish to have Annaprasanam on the first day itself. I had bought a mallu style (off white color with golden zari) skirt and blouse for Chittu from Naidu Hall and thought would make Chittu wear that the next day. But as our plan was turned topsy turvy, rushed to a nearby shop and bought a mallu style frock. We made Chittu wear it directly in the shop and took her inside the temple. It was monsoon time in Kerala and was raining heavily. Thoughtfully I had taken an umbrella and it was damn useful throughout the trip.

J paati and thatha went to get the tickets and the rest of us were waiting in a small mandapam near the Thulabaram counter.  Almost 45 restless minutes passed by and they both came back with the tickets and said there was a serpentine queue for getting the ticket for Annapraasanam. Chittu slept well in that gap and was fresh and all ready to taste the first bite of rice. Just outside the Sreekovil entrance, on the right side near the kunnikuruvu uruLi, we were made to sit. Chittu sat on her dad’s lap and had aravanai paayasam, rice, pappadam, pachidi, kootu and vaazhapazham. She was a sweet heart and tasted all of those with all smiles. Since cameras and mobile phones are not allowed inside the temple, the temple photographers clicked the pictures for us and we got the CD from them (awaiting hard copies through speed post) The photographer assigned to us was kind enough to comply to all our requests (as to how we exactly wanted the photos) and we even took a group photo with Kesavan’s tusks in the back ground. Kesavan is an elephant – a parama bhagawathan, who was extremely close to Lord Guruvayoorappan and after his demise, his tusks adorne the entrance to Sree Kovil.

After Annapraasanam, we stood in the queue (which was short and moved pretty fast) for Thulabaram. We gave panchasaarai (Sugar) and pazham (Banana) as offering. We had taken a couple of snaps there too. It was almost 1 PM by then and for Choroonu, there was a free quick darshan allowed for the mother and baby. So, me and Chittu had our glimpse of our dear Guruvayoorappan and prayed to HIM. The last I had seen HIM was around 10 years back when I was doing my college. We saw him at close quarters, where we were allowed just before the steps that lead to the main deity. In the inner prakaram were Lord Ganapathy, Dasavatharam idols, Sesha sayana perumal with Sridevi having HIS head on her lap and Bhoodevi having HIS foot on her lap, Brahma from HIS naabhi, and all devas inscribed on the walls and Hanuman shrines. We joined the others after darshan and went to Brahmana samooham for lunch and retired to the room to take rest.

2^nd half of the day started at 4.30 PM. We went to the temple and our driver and thatha went to the Devaswom board office to meet an official who could help us for darshan. Thatha’s acquaintance (mentioned earlier) had already spoken to the officials and we were taken to a shorter VIP queue and had a serene darshan. This time around it wasn’t as close as our morning darshan. Just as we entered the Sree Kovil, we also saw the vathilmatam - platforms where Narayana Battathiri (who was affected by paralysis) was lying and rendered Narayaneeyam to get rid of his disease. Legend says that he sang one dasakam a day and by the end of 100 days, he was completely cured. We prayed to Sastha and Bhagavathi amman shrines in the chuttambalam and once we came out of the temple, we found it very hard to locate our driver. I still don’t remember how we survived before mobile phones became a part of our lives. From there we headed to Mammiyoor Shivan temple after dinner (Same Krishna Bhavan – home made dosas J). The sthala purana says that Lord Shiva gave permission for Guruvayoorappan to stay in Guruvayoor and the Guruvayoor trip is not complete without a visit to Mammiyoor. We came back to the guest house and all of us slept like a log.

Next day morning, we had our breakfast and went to Narayana Siras – temple pond and proceeded to the temple, searching for a place in Chuttambalam to sit and read Narayaneeyam. It was a Sunday and the temple was crowded than usual. The side (non-darshan) entrance, through which we entered freely the previous day, had a long queue on Sunday and it took 15 minutes to enter Chuttambalam. We searched and searched but couldn’t find a place in which we can sit throughout uninterrupted by the rains. Somehow thatha was not in for reading in Chuttambalam as he was scared if Chittu would poop in between and it could cause any hindrance. But me and J paati were stubborn as that was a prarthanai. Just then someone showed us a staircase near the West nada entrance (it was the backside of the main deity) and told us that we can read there too. When we went up, we saw 2 long halls with N number of Krishna idols. There was a discourse going on in one of these halls and the other one was empty. We entered this hall and started our parayanam at 9 AM. Our only aim was to complete all 100 dasakas by 1 PM. Chittu helped us a great deal by sleeping throughout and not disturbing us an iota. S mama took care of her during the short while she was playing. S gave her pre-prepared kanji when she was hungry. With all the assistance from everyone and with Guruvayoorappan’s blessings, we completed 90 dasakas by 12.30 PM.

We had arranged (with the Devaswom board official) for a special darshan at 12.30. So started from the mandapam and joined the VIP queue. Started from the 91^st dasakam while standing in the queue and when I was face to face with Guruvayoorappan I was in the 93^rd. After fervently praying to him for aayur aarogya sowkyam, went to the exact backside of the sanctum sanctorum and finished the remaining 7 dasakams there. I couldn’t control my tears for I had a nagging thought if I would be able to complete this when we started at 9. Guruvayoorappan not only helped us finish this but also gave me a chance to read in the inner prakaram of Sree kovil. I had goose bumps all over when I read the namaskara slokams (98^th dasakam – 10 slokas) and did the prostration. We were done by 1.30 PM and came out with complete satisfaction and absolute peace. We had lunch at Brahmana samooham, came back to the guest house, packed and were off to Thrissur. The return train was late by 1 hour and we reached Chennai at 7 AM the next morning and were at home by 7.45. Chittu was a highly co-operative kid and I am so proud of how my little angel was able to cope up situations. When Chittu grows up and becomes a little big of an understandable age, I want to take her & S with me for Nirmalyam / Vaagai Chaathu darshan. It is a wish which I am sure will get fulfilled by HIM J

When I look back at the trip, all I could see is the way how the omnipresent Guruvayoorappan guided us throughout

·         Change in plan. The temple was extremely crowded on Sunday. If we had Annaprasanam and Thulabaram on Sunday as initially planned, it would have left us tensed and exhausted as the queue was too long. Also, we were able to do the procedures in Aani month itself (Sunday was aadi maasa pirappu) rather than in Aadi

·         Getting a big hall exclusively for us to read Narayanaeeyam uninterruptedly was a miracle

·         Making us complete 100 dasakas in a record time of 4.5 hours and doing namaskara slokams in the inner prakaram

·         Making Chittu sleep on day 2 and helping us out in the parayanam

·         Thatha’s acquaintance, whom he has not even seen, assisting us with the vehicle and darshan

Tips for people visiting Guruvayoor

·         You don’t have to see Nakshatram / Thithi to do Annaprasanam or Thulabaram in Guruvayoor. Everything happens as per God’s will and wish.

·         Chorronu ticket costs Rs. 10 and can be done anytime when the Nada is open in the morning hours (upto 1 PM). You may need to give an amount as dakshina (of your wish) to the person performing it

·         The baby cannot be taken inside the Sree Kovil before Choroonu

·         Avoid Sundays

·         There is a non-darshan entrance through west nada (main entry point) and east nada (bhavavathy amman shrine side). Check that out if you want to enter the temple without darshan

·         Mother and baby are entitled for a free darshan after Choroonu. So retain the tickets with you

·         On any day other than Sundays, you can pay Rs. 250 per head and enter the VIP queue for a quick Darshan. There are people (near East nada shops) who have contacts in Devaswom board and make it possible unofficially. We came to know about this when we were waiting for our driver to come, when a person who looked like a broker, approached us and offered. But did not use this option.

·         Hotel Krishna Bhavan – here you get home made breakfast and dinner. It is in the East nada opposite to Akshaya tours and travels. When you come out of East Nada take the first left.

·         Brahmana samooham in East Nada – here you get free lunch for Brahmins. However, you need to book and get a token before 10 AM. You can pay whatever amount you wish as donation. A simple curry, kootu, sambar, rasam, buttermilk and Paal payasam prasadam is offered for lunch.

·         If your want to dress up your kid in mallu style, there are lots of shops that sell these just outside the temple at economic price, from where you can buy

Vandhuttomla - Part 2

She can now go on all fours and rock. It is cute to see this yaanai pose. It all started by lasting for a microsecond, then a second, then a few seconds and now she keeps rocking until she gets bored or she slips down by herself as the distance between hands and knees increase due to rocking. J paati sings “aaanai aanai” rhymes for her and she enjoys that. Here is the full version

ஆனை ஆனை, அழகர் ஆனை

அரசரும் சொக்கரும் ஏறும் ஆனை

கட்டிக் கரும்பை முறிக்கும் ஆனை

காவேரி ஆத்தைக் கலக்கும் ஆனை

ஆனை வந்துதாம் தோப்புல

அரசெலை வந்துதாம் ஆத்துல

நம்ம ஆனைக்கு பட்டம் கட்டி

ஊராள் ஆனைக்கு சுட்டி கட்டி

நம்ம ஆனை வா வா

ஊராள் ஆனை போ போ

குட்டி யானைக்கு கொம்பு மொளச்சுது

பட்டணம் எல்லாம் பாக்க வாங்கோ

She is yet to crawl, but from the yaanai pose throws her body to the front and moves. Because she can move faster on her tummy, she always prefers that. The other day she tried to sit on her own by turning on the sides and firmly pressing the palms on the ground, but she missed her balance and fell down. She tried it again a couple of days later, this time she was almost close to sitting, but fell down again. So, she isn’t trying nowadays. She can however sit for a few minutes without support if we make her to. But K paati asks me not to do that because it can create a hunch for the babies it seems. She can say “Ma, ma, ma, ma, Ya, ya, ya and a few other blabbers which are hard to decipher”. But she wouldn’t say it if we request her to. She says it by and to herself when she is busily playing. I used her bath tub once and she loved splashing the water and had great fun. But I have temporarily stopped it due to the sudden weather change in Chennai and have planned to resume when the weather is back to normal. Chittu now knows her surroundings pretty well, can clearly recognize faces. When she sees me, she throws her hands and thaavifies towards me irrespective of whoever she is with. Whenever I leave her for a few hours with mami or J paati and return, I should lift her immediately. She won’t even give me time to wash my hands and feet. She would cry her heart out by the time I wash and come. Similarly when S returns from office and says a HI to her from the entrance, she would give her best smile to him. She plays happily and is herself when she is in our house or in J paati’s house. If she goes to S perippa’s house in the first floor, she doesn’t cry but is not as playful as she normally is. If she goes to S’s chithi’s house in our same building, she cries uncontrollably and makes them bring her back to us and calms down as soon as she sees me or S or K paati. Same thing with C maami’s house (J paati’s neighbor) too. C maami and her daughter-in-law felt so bad about this, because during the initial 4 months, she used to spend time in their house atleast an hour a day without any hitch.

Chittu is also learning to spend time alone with J paati in my absence. I’m kind of training her on this and went for the movie Vaanam, a wedding reception and a birthday party leaving her with her paati. Earlier Chittu used to smile for anything and everything. But now, her smiles have reduced. She smiles only when she feels like. When I ask J paati, she says “Neeyum naanum edhukkeduthaalum chumma sirikkaromaa? Adhuvum valarradhu” Sigh! My little girl has already started growing! Good news is that thumb sucking habit has also reduced considerably. We’ve made it a practice to go to Shirdi Sai Baba temple every Thursday for night 9.15 pm haarathi. It gives a sense of peace and serenity and makes our mind cool and calm. I really enjoy this and wait for Thursday to come. Also, we went o Adyar Ananthapadmanabhaswamy temple on a Friday evening and Chittu had good fun in that trip. We’ve got the settlement for S’s ancestral property. This has been pending for quite sometime and finally things fell in place. Needless to say, we call it Chittu’s luck. But a lot of tension and mental pressure went behind this and it pained a lot when rounds of discussion were done amongst S, his brother and sisters. We learnt the lesson that “When it comes to money or property, there is no space for the term brother or sister” in a harder way. But All is well that ends well and finally everything happened smoothly and now everybody is happy.

Chittu’s 6^th month review was done on 14^th May 2011. She was given Hepatitis B (HBV) 2^nd course vaccination. But weight gain was 40 gms lesser than the expected. My leave was approved until 31^st May and because I was going to start work, Dr.S asked us to give Ragi porridge with milk and sugar, mango milkshake, boiled vegetables and idly. She even asked us to give curd rice and rasam rice. When I told her that we will do annaprasana in July, she was not willing to agree and asked us to start immediately. So, for the time being I have said a YES to her, but will be giving rice only after annaprasana, which we have planned in Guruvayoor on July 17th. Praying to Lord Guruvayoorappan that everything goes on well. Chittu took the prescribed supplementary food pretty well.

It rained heavily on 1^st June evening and Chittu was down with fever on 2^nd morning. She had 100˚F temperature. I gave her two doses of Crocin at 7 AM and 11 AM and took her to Dr. S at 2 PM. She said it is an air borne viral infection due to sudden weather change and asked me to continue with Crocin and because Chittu had slight cold prescribed T-minic oral drops and Nasoclear nasal drops. She also asked me to come immediately if temperature crosses 101 as some babies might throw fits. So, I gave Chittu a dose of Crocinall 3 medicines at 5.30 PM. At 10 the temperature shot up to 101 and I was scared. Also, she had pooed a number of times (the consistency was normal however) and the entire area was reddish in color. So repeated Crocin, applied rash cream and put her to sleep. But poor baby couldn’t sleep at all and we were awake till 3 in the morning. I checked temperature again and this time around it was normal, but to rule out any further risk, gave her a mild dose of Crocin after which both of us slept slowly. It was June 3^rd and P akka’s engagement was happening in Pudhukottai. Congratulations P akka! So all of them including S were going in a van from Chennai. I had already decided that I wouldn’t travel with Chittu during the day as it could be hectic. At 6 AM, V athai, athimber, P akka, Sonu & her family dropped in at our place. They picked S, B athai and her son M anna, M athai and her son V anna and started. K paati was also going to a wedding in Thiruvanmiyur. We got up and waved them all good bye and went back to sleep. So it was me and Chittu only. I woke up at 9 and checked her temperature, it was just 0.02˚ above normal. So I gave her a reduced dose of Crocin and immediately she puked the medicine with the milk. I cleaned her up, she was tired but active and playing. I gave her porridge at 11, checked the temperature, it was normal. After allowing her to play for around 15 minutes, gave her T-minic, she puked again and all the porridge came out. I didn’t know what to do. By then mami came home. She asked me to get ready, do my Friday pooja and go to work and said she will take care of Chittu and she put her  to sleep. I went to office at around 2 in the afternoon and within an hr mami called and said Chittu puked even water. I was worried. I called up Dr. S, but she was leaving the clinic and asked me to come to her home at 7. There, she prescribed Domstal and asked me to give it half an hour before food. I gave two doses of that and Chittu is no longer puking. She is much better now, but gets tired very soon, is active and playful, doesn’t like the taste of anything except water and wants more and more of it. So, that is the story of sickness and Chittu is in a quick recovery mode now.

Updates from my end, I bought a new Scooty Pep+ (Mauve) new mobile Nokia X3 (both these are sponsored by J paati…Thanks ma!) I joined work on June 1^st. My office location is changing to a farther place and so looks like the new project that I am going to be assigned to would force me to shift my residence. I’ll go by the tide as it takes me, so let us see. As of now, I don’t have a desk, PC, phone extension, I’m not allocated to any project, I am going to the old location only (which is hardly 20 mins drive from home) and spending hardly 2-3 hours in office. Mami is coming to cook in the mornings too from last Monday, so things have become a little easier for me. It is a difficult task to have the baby and cook and pack and clean. But now I have more time to spend with Chittu and I am happy! :D

Hopefully from now on, I will have enough time to update this site frequently as I used to before. Yet to blog hop and get updates from others’ site.

Vandhuttomla - Part 1

We have a lot of updates from the Chittu household in a very short while of 1.5 months. Things happened so fast that by the time we realized one, the other happened without giving me time to blog about it. We have gone through a few ups and downs, achieved important milestones and so this is going to be a long post. Thanks a lot Anon & Anu for enquiring – you now know that we are still alive and kicking J

Picking from where I left, me, S & Chittu went to PS uncle’s house and the Narayaneeyam function was a grand success. All of us prayed to Lord Guruvayoorappan that PS uncle’s daughter is blessed with a healthy & beautiful baby. PS uncle took us to Parthasarathy perumaL temple – Chittu’s first divyadesam visit. Brahmotsavam was going on there and we were fortunate enough to see Mohini alankaaram.  They were banging big drums during the procession and I had close Chittu’s ears as the decibel level was too high. Swamy had wounds all over his face – tradition says that it is because he was the charioteer for Arjuna during the Kurukshetra war and had borne the scars of many arrows which hit him during the course. Last I had seen Mohini alankaaram was almost a decade back in Srirangam during Vaikunta Ekadasi time. This one brought back a lot of those memories to me. As we entered the main gopuram, on the inner side above the dhwajasthambam there is an idol of Lord Krishna doing Geethopadesam to Arjuna and next to this there is a lion who is none other than Lord Narasimha himself who had manifested in the form of lion as he wanted to listen to the Bhagavad Gita. PS uncle told us that this is a very important structure to be seen before seeing the main diety - Parthasarathy otherwise known as Venkatakrishnan, with his family (his wife Rukmani, brothers Balarama & Satyaki, son Pradyumna, grandson Anirudha) Because of PS uncle’s influence we were lucky enough to have darshan just outside the garbagraha and it was an ecstatic experience to see the Lord in such close quarters. Then we proceeded to see Thayar and Andal. The Yoga Narasimhar in this temple is highly powerful and I have had firsthand experience on this. A couple of years back when I was having serious troubles in my project, I sincerely prayed to HIM and Whoa!!! Within the next couple of days, the root cause of my issues resigned and moved on to another company. It turned out to be good for both of us. This time around, S was on cross roads and was highly concerned about his career, so we wanted to pray to this Yoga Narasimhar again to show us the right path. But unfortunately the sannidhi was closed. But we were firm enough to return the next day again and get HIS darshan and fervently prayed to HIM. We also read Prahlada Charithram and Narasimhavataram from Narayaneeyam. The result also turned out to be fruitful and S is happy now with the new project.

V athai came to our house in the 3^rd week of April and spent a few days with us to take rest as she was recovering from angioplasty. But the busy a(u)nt that she is, it was highly difficult to make her sit in one place and relax. Chittu also spent a good time with athai and bonded well with her. Maami has been coming for the past 2 months now and touch wood! She has gelled well with Chittu and that is a big time relief for me. J paati & thatha visit us almost every day on their way back to home from work. S mama drops in whenever he finds time. Recently he bought Chittu a beautiful green frock and a Chicco roller. She enjoys the roller and the music that comes from it. Sometime during the middle of last month, May 18 to be precise, it was a BIG BLACK day for S mama and a terrible day for all of us. S mama was completely dejected and I went with Chittu the following weekend and she completely lit up his face and lifted his spirits. The gloomy mood changed to a playful one and all of us felt peaceful. That is the miracle that a kid can do and we feel really gifted to have Chittu J

Coming to the food – Still porridge with milk and sugar rules and Buttermilk kanji is always secondary rather tertiary. The irony is - she loves plain buttermilk. S used to have buttermilk before going to bed and when he gives few drops, she drinks it happily and expresses that she likes the taste with a “chap chap” sound. She likes tender coconut & Sweet lime juice only if it is sweet. Slight salty / sour taste is a direct reject. She would simply refuse to open her mouth. Or if she feels paavam for me for holding the bottle / spoon for such a long time hoping she would take it in, she would swallow and spit immediately and give a sheepish grin. And all that I can do is smile back and hug her. I haven’t tried banana yet as I am concerned with how she will be able to swallow it inspite of all the smashing and crushing. Also, haven’t tried watermelon juice as I couldn’t get a fresh piece. Dr.S is completely against tinned food, so No Cerelac, No Nestum, No Nan or any other formula for Chittu.

Chittu is fond of paper, plastic covers, clothes, jasmines & anything tiny which an adult would ignore as unwanted on the floor. PERIOD! It so happened that S gave her an invitation which had come by post and told her “Idhula enna irukkunu padichu sollu Chittu” Then he got a call and got busy with it. Few minutes later when I came to the living room from the kitchen I saw S sitting on the sofa and talking over the phone. Little missy was silently lying down on the floor and having the invite in her mouth. She had soaked it in saliva and had nibbled the corners and was chewing away those bits of paper happily. Immediately I removed them all and got her mouth cleaned thoroughly, when S jokingly commented “Unna padichu solla sonnaa nee kadichu sollriyaa?” J The other day, I was sitting next to her on the floor and having my tea. Suddenly I saw her taking something from the floor and put it in her mouth. I rushed to her and checked her mouth, but couldn’t find anything. I checked till her throat, nothing could be found there too. I was confused. The very next second “PLOP” came a teaspoon of porridge from her mouth and amidst that was a small jasmine flower which had fallen down. Phew!! She even scratches the mosaic flooring thinking something edible has stuck onto it. Now that she has indicated us many a times that she has mastered the art of “porukki pottufying” we have learnt to be extra cautious and monitoring her always. Whatever we give her in hand, it automatically goes to the mouth. Her way of recognizing objects is to first touch and then lick them. Babies….huh! But out of practice, now we know that if the speed of her movement increases and she shows some kind of eagerness in her face, then she is moving towards an attractive target which she has found and which she wants to taste. And if there is absolute silence when she is awake, she is happily chewing away something.

This happened one Sunday morning in the first week of May. There was no power for hours together on Saturday night and the fan was running on inverter. So we asked K paati to come to our room and sleep so that we can optimize the usage of fans and use it for longer hours uninterruptedly. Chittu slept between both of us and S slept on the floor. K paati got up early in the morning and went to the hall to carry on her regular chores. So it was only me and Chittu in the cot. S got up a little later and saw that both of us were in deep sleep and that one side of the cot was open so he piled a few pillows on Chittu’s other side and went to brush & have his morning coffee and paper. All of a sudden I heard Chittu’s sharp cry like she was in deep pain. Immediately I checked by my side, she was not there. My heart skipped a beat and I saw, she had fell down from the cot. Instantly I picked her up, pacified her, soothed her and in 5 minutes she was back to normal and smiled faintly too. Later that day she had porridge, milk, did all her usual activities and everything was completely alright. But both me and S felt miserable and guilty as parents, for we were careless and made her fall down. I was in tears and couldn’t control myself for almost an hour. We did a reactive analysis on how this had happened inspite of piling those pillows. Finally came to know that, there was a small gap between the head of the cot and the first pillow. Chittu had sneaked through that gap and fallen down. Poor girl, it should have hurt a lot. It served as a lesson to both of us and we vowed not to take any chance or make even the slightest mistake as far as Chittu is concerned. We are extremely sorry kannamma!

To be continued....