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....