Happy 3 Champ!

Dearest Athi,

It's been 3 years since you stepped into this world, and boy, time flies. You are no longer that squishy-squashy tiny goofball, but a fully blown young toddler, with a mind and choices of his own. 

This year, you started school. It sure was a testing time for me as you took 2 months to settle. There'd be the going inside whimper, sudden cries in between the class time remembering us, coming out and checking if were waiting outside the gate - so many different portrayals and iterations of separation anxiety. Phew! I was tired. But then, slowly you came to terms with the scenario and started enjoying going to school. And now, you have your own set of friends, sing a lot of songs that you listen and learn there. 

If there is one thing that has been a constant since the beginning, it's definitely got to be your love for drums. There were quite a few wedding events that we attended this year where you were inseparable from the Thavil and Nadaswaram musicians. It so happened that once Thatha Paati took you to a Wedding Reception, but you went there and declared it wasn't a wedding at all, as there was no Thavil / Nadaswaram. You have a sweet spot for Thavil, and often keep wearing sketch pen covers onto your fingers at home, in the same way that the Thavil musicians wear their finger accessories. 

This year also saw the first time you stayed overnight at my parents' home without me / Venky. I was overwhelmed at the way you answered to my desperate pleas to hold you back. I was anxious that we might need to wake up in the middle of the night and bring you back home, but you handled it really well. That night I really did feel you were grown. 

You started riding the various cycles at both the houses (parents and in-laws) with so much ease and speed. From pushing the cycles to using the pedals to drive, you have come a long way. There isn't a day that passes without the cycle, and it gives you immense opportunities for pretend play - such as going to the shop and buying the vegetables. Annachi is your favorite character. And anybody who'd be interested in joining your pretend play has to be the Annachi.

Doctor visits this year were a little too frequent owing to the intermittent wheezing, cold, coughs and HFM. But you were so well behaved when we met with the doctors that they were quite surprised and pleased. I used to dread giving your medicines earlier as you didn't want to have them, and rebelled so much, but even that has changed now - you are very cooperative. There are certain prohibited foods at the moment, such as sweets, chocolates, bananas, etc. - so when we do say that you can't eat them, you are mostly acceptive of it and hardly make any tantrums. You are a good kid!

You listen and talk so much now. I'm simply in awe at the way you remember things. I keep wondering what is this brain man - how does it remember so much, while I'm struggling to remember even the basic things. Once somebody promises or tells you something there is no going back in their words, you refuse to accept those changes. Like for example, if V tells that he'd take you to school in Car on a certain day, it's really a tough job to convince you to come with you in bike that day. You keep repeating - Appa car la kootitu porenu sonnale - you don't let it go.

You make it a point to communicate your preferences very clearly, and a No means No! We may beg, plead, force, mildly scream - but nothing works. At the most, the No changes from a No to May be Later, but definitely not a Yes. So, the only way for us is to put with it and try a workaround. And most often than not, it works. 

You like little kids and caress them so well. There are 2 little kids in the apartment - you engage and play with them really well. There was one particular day where I left you over at their home (on your own) to play with the kid and came back after a while to bring you back home. Oh, so many such little instances where I feel you are growing really fast. 

Lastly, one thing that I'd always be thankful to the moms of school friends is sending me the videos of their kids eating on their own. That was the final push that was needed for you to start eating on your own. So, for the past 1 month, you at least have one meal a day on your own. Your food preferences have hardly changed - the handful of additions being eggs, adai, chapathi, radish, pasta, pooris. Poori being your absolute favorite. The sides though always constant - sugar, ghee and naatu sakkarai - and all the three of them together. You don't agree even if we skip one of them. As long as you eat the main dish fully, we are good. 

Happy birthday again, Champ! 

Love,
Amma

Of Margazhis and Color Kolams

My earliest memory of Margazhi traces back to when I was around 8 or 9 years old. Every morning when I used to go to Hindu Tuition, I'd be glancing the kolams in front of each house and decide on who had the best kolam of the day. I'd come back home and dutifully report about the winner to anyone who'd listen and urge them to go see it! The colours, the strokes and the perfection of it all together fascinated me. 

Margazhi colour kolams were a tradition in our home too, but in a slightly different schedule. Given that Amma was working and had to start to work as early as 6 in the morning, we'd put our kolams the previous night. Amma would draw the kolam, while me and my brother would colour them, and Amma does a final touch up. 

I still remember the almost-torn yellow-paged big book which had hand drawn kolams by paati. That would be our reference. My brother and I took turns on choosing the kolam for each day, but some of our choices were shunned by Amma because it was too complicated to draw and colour.

The way we'd finish off dinner as early as 8:30PM during those 10-15 days, and how Amma would wear a scarf on her head to protect from the cold, then clean the floor with water, let it dry for a few minutes, and then go about drawing the kolams - all these are still etched in my memory like it happened yesterday.

However, after I moved out of Neyveli, this whole practice died down, and I never really drew a kolam for a long time. I had always appreciated and admired the people who effortlessly drew it, and wished I'd also master that art one day. But I never took a step towards that practice until very recently. Last year, all of a sudden (not quite sure what was the exact reason), I picked up some interest in kolams, and wanted to practice them. 

For day-to-day kolams, sikku kolams are my absolute favourite. Their patterns and strokes would drive you crazy, and your whole kolam is ruined if you make one small mistake. But they look so good when drawn right. I liked the challenge it gave, and took it upon myself to practice them. Incidentally I also got a book exclusively for these sikku kolams from a book fair. From then on, its mostly been a sikku kolam everyday at my home. Sometimes I practice on a notebook earlier and draw outside the house, and sometimes I straightaway draw on the floor. There have been days where I have messed up (happens when don't fully concentrate or are in a hurry to finish off or when you're so overconfident that you don't refer to the book while drawing) and had to redo the entire thing, but I love doing it. Love how my strokes have improved, and are flowing from fingers naturally. 

So this almost year long practice has boosted me to give a shot at the Margazhi colour kolams this year. Today is day 1 of Margazhi and I managed to put a kolam late in the morning. But for tomorrow, I'm taking my mom's route of previous night drawing, and have done the work for tomorrow already. Involving the kiddo with this is also nice. He likes colours, so I give him the choice to choose the colours he'd like me to use. He needs to grow a little more to be able to handle the colouring on his own.

I shall add an edit with all the pictures of the kolams I've managed to draw in this year's Margazhi season :)

Magical Meghalaya

21 March 2022

After the Kaziranga Safari, we finally set out on the journey to the place about which this whole trip is about - Shillong, Meghalaya. We started off early in the morning and reached Jagalbhanda for breakfast. The breakfast was king size - rotis with 5 kinds of side dishes (stir fried veggies, dal, spinach). A hearty meal to start the 250 odd km drive. It was a bright and sunny day, and the highways were a breeze to drive in. We stopped for some Elaneer mid-way and reached the foothills at around 12pm. The ghat roads began thereafter. I was astounded at the number of petrol bunks we saw enroute. There were at least 2 for each kilometer. As we climbed ahead, the temperature started to dip down, and we were welcomed with some cool breeze as we entered the outskirts of Shillong. Another sight that surprised us were the local taxis - the whole car was painted a bright adika vara yellow. I have seen taxis being painted black and a pale yellowish orange, but this bright yellow was so new.

The first thing that you notice as you enter Shillong is the Umiam Lake, which is situated in valley sort of set up, nestled by mountains on all sides. The bluish green waters, that had tiny waves and ripples all over was a sight to behold. We had booked our stay in the Upper Shillong which was at a distance of 10 kilometers from the center. We reached our hotel, the Silver Brooks at about 2pm in the noon, and decided to have our lunch in the restaurant that accompanied the hotel. One of the best things about doing the North-East trip with a 2-year-old kid is - Rice and dal are the staple food here, which makes it a little easier for most of the trip. We had some Dal and Rice for lunch and retired to our rooms. Given that we had drove for 5 hours and that it was noon already, we decided to rest for the remaining part of the day and start our exploration from the next day.

Athi, however, wasn't ready to rest as he had had enough sleep in the car during the drive. V rested, while me and Athi ventured out. The hotel had a small slide and a trampoline for the kids. He played on it for a while, and then took a walk around the neighborhood to watch the cows grazing, mynahs fluttering about everywhere which Athi enjoyed chasing around. Most of the neighborhood was farming land which were just ploughed and ready for cultivation, and a couple of houses here and there. 

As we went back to the hotel, V came out, so we walked further and reached a school playground where kids were practicing football. There was a particular kid, hardly a year older than Athi, who was jumping about and loved kicking the ball around, which intrigued Athi. Some of the other older boys noticed us and encouraged Athi to give a shot at kicking the ball - and boy, he got really excited, and didn't want to leave the place. It was hardly 5pm, but the twilight has kicked in, and by the time we went back to our hotel, it was pitch dark even though the time was only 6pm. The temperature had also dipped significantly, and the chill could be felt. We had an early dinner at the same restaurant and slept off as early as 7:30pm. I believe that is the earliest that Athi has slept for the first time ever.

Athi Reads!

I wanted Athi appreciate the habit of reading and hence, introduced him to the world of books ever since he was 7-8 months old. We began with board books, moved on to flappy, push-pull-slide, and currently are at normal paper books for 2 year olds.

I have been reading him this book called "Let's Go" for almost 2 months now. We read this every night right before sleep. He has been obsessed by it, but never opens his mouth to read or volunteers to say the next word when I pause. Worst case, he deliberately says the wrong sentence/word. There have been times when I wanted to stop reading because of such behaviour, but nevertheless we continued, both because of his persistence and my main motive to make him enjoy reading. 

A couple of days back, he did something that stunned me completely. He took out the book, read out it entirely on his own to his Paati, and made her recite each line after him. That kannula thanni vechunda moment - all those bedtime reading did eventually pay  off! I wanted to listen to him read again, and requested him, only to be met by a sheepish grin and walking away.

A day in Kaziranga!

Day 3 of our North-East Trip. To read the previous entry please click here. 

Our jeep safari into the Kaziranga National Park was scheduled at 7AM. We woke up had some tea and waited for the jeep to arrive. The jeeps are big enough to accommodate 5 people easily, but since nobody else in our stay opted for a early safari that day, it was just the 3 of us.

The national park as such is humungous, and is split into different ranges such as Central, Eastern and Western. Our first safari was into the Central Range, which has the biggest jeep trail of the park. There are 2 types of safaris in this range - Jeep and Elephant Safari. The elephant safari lasts for an hour and is limited in distance. However, it takes you quite close to the animals. The Jeep safari covers a fair bit of distance, approximately 20 km, and lasts for 2-3 hours. 

The Kaziranga is most famous for one-horned Rhino. Other inhabitants include, Elephants, Wild Buffalos, Deer, and a whole host of birds such as Storks, Vultures, Parrots, Mynah, etc. The safari began with wide open grasslands dotted with rhinos and wild buffaloes at a distance. The excitement of spotting the animals and identifying what it is, really gets to you, as you progress through the journey. The driver a.k.a the guide does keep an eye out all the time (he's also quite familiar with the usual sighting spots) and is almost always the first one to spot any animal. 

As we were driving through spotting Sambhal Deers and Storks, Athiboy feel asleep. And then the driver suddenly stopped the vehicle - the next moment still feels surreal me. A group 6-7 elephants (including 3 little ones) just walked out of a big bush towards the stream beside which our trail lay. As they walked, a cloud of sand rose above them making the scene look exactly like a movie. At that exact moment, Athi also woke up and was excited to see the elephants. They slowly approached the stream and they stepped into the water; they were smart enough to roll their tails (to avoid them from getting wet). Our guide started off the vehicle the moment they entered the waters to ensure that we don't become a disturbance to them. 

As we drove long, it started getting quite hot, and since most of the national park is open grassland types, there wasn't any way to escape the Sun. The farthest point of the range is alongside the Brahmaputra River separated by some wooden fence. We stopped there to look at the river. The river, which is wide and brimming full in the monsoon, was reduced to a very thin stream during this period. But the breeze there was soothing and cool. 

Our last spotting was of a lone Tusker Elephant who was swimming / bathing in the water, towards the end of our safari. I'm at a loss of words to describe how I felt seeing such a gigantic elephant in its natural habitat. You have to see it to feel it. 

Having had a good 2-hour safari spotting all the animals, we headed back to the stay and had some Assamese Thali in the nearby restaurant. The one item that I was most surprised by was the subzi made of potatoes. I have seen baby potatoes, but these were tiny potatoes nearly the size of a peanut. 

We had almost the rest of the day to kill before we head to Shillong the next day, so we decided to go for another safari - this time, to the Western Range. We started off in the noon. The western range was about 12 km from our stay, and the most of this range was covered with Tea Plantations. I have always seen only Tea Plantations in the mountains, and this was the first time I saw tea plantation in the plains. The neat pattern of the bushes alongside walkways were a treat to an OCD person's eyes! 

The Western range wasn't as big as the Central. It had a lot of wild buffalos and a vast area of marshland where we spotted quite a few elephants and rhinos at a distance. A friend of the driver guide accompanied us. He had a pair of binoculars which got us excited to look through and spot the animals. We even managed to click a few pictures through the binoculars. 

By the time the safari ended, it was almost 4pm and the temperature dip was almost instant. From being scorching hot in the noon, it became foggy and cold, and the skies became dusky, as early as 6pm. 

Just when we thought we'd retire for the day, our stay owner told us about the Kaziranga National Orchid and Biodiversity Park, where traditional Assamese music and dance performances happened every evening. So, we went along, and it was definitely a treat to the eyes. The instruments, the song, the beats and their performance - all of them were just too good. We bumped into an Army personnel from Madras who deputed near Tezpur and had come to watch this performance with his superiors. He was visibly excited to have spotted a Tamilian there after a really long time, kept initiating random conversations with us. Have to say it did feel really nice to converse with someone in our native language outside our native state. 

Munching on some light snacks at the park, we headed back to Maihang for dinner and retired for the night.

Simple pleasures of Life

There have been quite a few things or behaviours in Athiboy which reminds me so much or my own childhood and brings joy to the day. I'm trying to document them here so that I can always be reminded that the joy of life lies in the most simplest of things. Things which cannot be bought, but only experienced as a part of the life. 

1. Sleeping the moment breeze hits your face during travel - This is something I have been quite famous for when I was kid. I literally doze off the moment I board a bus to Chennai / Bangalore. As soon as the breeze hits me, I'm out into my own dream world. One other reason was I had motion sickness, so if I don't sleep, I'm going to vomit - so people preferred to let me sleep.    

With Athi, there is no motion sickness, but almost all auto rides have put the kiddo into sleep within 15 mins. I love how observing how he slowly becomes silent and gets into a trance state and finally sleeps take over. The position or the comfort doesn't matter at all - off he goes into his own world. This unworried and peaceful sleep is something that I so miss these days. Because as I grew older, and travelled more, I got the better off my motion sickness and my sleep during travels have drastically reduced, and even if I do sleep, its not as it used it to be when I was a kid. Some things are gone with childhood, and this is one such - but glad I could cherish it when I was kid. 

School!

Dear Kiddo, 

You started school on 27 June 2022. Before this day, you were asked to come over to the school for a couple of days to get know about the school environment, more like a trial class. The trial class also allowed the parents to sit in a corner of the room and observe what the kids do. You were totally in awe with the classroom and the materials that were available around. You happily went about exploring them one after the other, once in a while checking if I / V was around in the room. You enjoyed spending time in there, even though it was as short as 20 minutes. 

The way you enjoyed those 2 trial classes led me to hope that you'd be fine to be there on your own. Well, you proved me how wrong I was to make such an assumption. The first day came, and V and I took you along to the school. You were excited to be there, but when we told you that we'd not be accompanying you into the class, your whole mood changed. It started with a mild whimper and grew into a full blown cry with tears streaming down the cheeks begging us not leave you alone. We didn't have a choice but to leave you in there and walk out - it was heartbreaking, but had to be done. 

One hour later when we came back, you still hadn't calmed down entirely, but were glad to go back to your known territory and be around the humans you knew and recognized. 

Once the evening descended and we started talks about you having to go to school the next day, you went around the house pleading to each of us to accompany you into the class. But when none of us obliged, and you started telling you don't want to go to school. 

The next day came, and a lot of cajoling had to be done to get you into the school. Once there, the crying intensified and the same routine of us leaving you crying there continued. 

It's been about 1.5 months now, and still the crying while entering the class hasn't stopped. Every evening there goes a conversation at home where you ask each of us - School ku poitu azhava? Azhava? or you just say na school ku poitu azhuven, azhudunde vilayaaduven.. 

On a brighter note, you seem to enjoy the class and generally are very excited to tell us what activity you did each day. There are days when we don't understand what exactly you are trying to convey, but hey, we are learning too. Most often your communication is neat and clear to make us understand; but some days its tough - like the other day when you said you did grains pouring and I was hearing it as grinding and pouring which somehow didn't make sense.

Also there was this one instance where you randomly started singing Wheels on the bus rhymes and told us that it was sung in the class. We were stumped and didn't believe it until the teacher herself confirmed that they'd sung it in the class. Ever since, that song has been going non-stop in your mouth. Whenever you feel like singing you sing that, whenever you are bored you sing that, whenever you are engrossed in some activity you sing that. Its so cute to watch it all.

Here's to hoping you settle well in the school and enjoy it. Its going to be your space for more than a decade and I wish you like it as much as I did mine. Good luck kiddo!

Love,

Gayuma

2½ Years!

Dearest Athi,

The last post I wrote about you was way back in Aug 2021. I missed out on your second birthday post - Sorry. I wouldn't miss out anything going forward. 

There is so much of catching up that needs to be done from where I left off in my last post. First of all, your talks. You started speaking out words as you neared 2 years of age, and in the next couple of months, your vocabulary has grown immensely well, and these days you keep talking non-stop. You are well versed in Tamil, and know quite a few words in English. There was this one instance where your answer to a random question I asked, completely bowled me over. I was stunned at the way you understood the question and gave the reply in an instant. 

(Scenario - Lying in the bed, trying to make him sleep) 

Me: Bul, ipo nee enna panlam'nu nenachitu iruke?

Athi: Amma, na ipo TV pakalam'nu nenachitu iruken.

There was no stopping you after this. You pretty much knew what you wanted, and always made it a point to make the other person, who was listening to you, understand what you are trying to communicate. The tinge of mazhalai in the speech is oh-so-cute. Whenever you are involved in self-play, you keep talking random stuff with yourself. These days there isn't a time when we see you silent, except for this one thing - no, its not sleep, this is different - Listening to stories.

If there is one new trait that you have very recently picked up, its got to be listening to stories. Not exactly sure how the transition from listening to songs to listening to stories during sleep-time happened - it was something pretty abrupt if I remember it right, but so glad it happened. Because songs were usually played on phones, but stories have to told by us, humans. You get transfixed and watch ever-so-keenly when someone recites a story or sings a song to you. You pester for stories every time someone is trying to make you sleep and it has to be a new story every time. You keep asking - Amma th(k)adhai sollu, pudhu thadhai.. (You are not able to pronounce 'ka' as yet) and refuse to sleep unless we say something. But in 5-10 mins of the story telling (story making) you get drowsy, and doze off. There have definitely been more days where I have slept off mid-way telling you stories, but you don't seem to mind and doze off on your own in a little while. There have also been days where you wake me up if I dozed off asking for more stories.

Another thing to point out exclusively is, you sleep through most of the night, and hardly ever wake up asking for Milk. This has been one of the biggest milestones, personally for me. The midnight milk runs are the most dreadful ones, because we lose sleep over it. These days you either demand milk before you sleep off at night, or you drink one, only in the morning. Your night wake ups are limited to asking - amma madi..amma madi.. and climbing on my lap and dozing off there. As I try to fidget around in my sleep, I realize my legs are heavy and remember you sleeping on it, and have to roll you over onto the bed. This has been a regular occurrence, but since this doesn't really impact me much, I am quite fine with it, at the moment. 

Your Thatha craze has reached new heights, and you want him, only him, for anything and everything. Right from making you brush, taking you to the loo, feeding, bathing, dressing up, going out, sleeping. You are so happy around him, and wouldn't want to leave his side ever. All the love you shower on him is definitely all the efforts he has taken. He keeps you engaged almost all through the day, involving you in almost everything that he does - watering plants, running grocery errands, visiting relatives, and never says a "No" for anything you ask (this one is a bit tricky). You and him are always one team, I feel so glad that you guys have each other.

The food struggle is real. You are on a great rejection spree and reject almost everything that we offer you, almost all through the day. Its becoming a bit of a force feeding. Its only during times when you are unbearably hungry that you eat whatever that is offered to you. And there are also once-in-a-blue-moon kind of days where you demand you need this and eat it happily when its offered. Ghee, Butter and Sugar are your staples. Sugar - the one food that we want to introduce ever so slowly has become your first love, thanks to Thatha. And surprisingly you do seem to like Cheese and enjoy a bite of Cheesy Dosas once in a while. The rest of the food intake are mostly mood-driven.

Your love for parks has grown sizably well.  You love the slides the most, especially the round ones. From fearing to slide over it a year and a half ago, to climbing the stairs and sliding down without a tinge of hesitation, you have really grown. Thatha takes you the park almost once a week, and then when you go to my parents' place, there is small park with slides inside the apartment complex where you spend most of the evenings. You have also started doing a fair bit of cycling. The Decathlon balance bike is your absolute favorite. You love vrooming around on it within the apartment complex at my parents' home. 

Car -the one word that you keep repeating almost all day. 

Car saavi enga? Enga porom? Car la poroma, bike la poroma? Car la paapa mattum thaniya front la ukandhukren. 

Saying that you are crazy about car is an understatement. You are obsessed with it. You enjoy the rides and refuse to share the front seat with anyone but Thatha. In the recent past, we have started taking quite a lot of auto rides, and you do seem to enjoy that as well. I guess, movement makes you happy, be it car, bike, auto or even cycle.

You went on your first flight trip (to Meghalaya) and first train journey to get your head tonsured. You enjoyed both these trips immensely. Your reaction to you getting your head tonsured was such a sweet surprise to us - you didn't make a flinch when it was getting done, in fact you were as excited as us to get it and done and enjoyed it thoroughly, and admired your mottai so much.

You are going to school next week, and I am an anxious wreck. You are quite excited about it and we have been preparing you up for it for a long time now, but still I am worried the way every mom would be. Hope you have a great time there. I will definitely pen down how your first day at school looked to me next week.

One with the mottai!

Love,

Amma

Guwahati - Tezpur - Kaziranga

After a good night's sleep, we woke up the next morning and had some amazing Aloo Parathas and Chole Bhatura for breakfast, and that's when V received a call from his friend. We'd thought this friend lived in Dehradun, but apparently he got posted Tezpur (near Guwahati) more than a year ago. He saw V's pictures and status on the social media and called up right away and asked us to come meet him. Since this was just an hour's detour from our next destination we thought we'd go make a visit. And guess what, it was one of the best decisions.

The friend is a doctor in the military hospital and was provided accommodation as a part of the hospital quarters. The home, and the surroundings as such were lovely. Neatly built similar looking buildings, flowers of every colour around each corner, good roads, and one big beautifully maintained garden. To me, it felt like a mini version of Neyveli. I loved the place instantly. Athi started playing and roaming around with the friend's daughter who was a couple of years older than him. After an hour of roaming around, we had a heart-filling lunch of Idli, Dosa, Sambhar, Omelettes and Curd for Athiboy, and ended it with a fruit custard for dessert which Athi thought it to be ice cream and gulped one whole cup happily.

The kids digging through in the Military Hospital Garden 

We took off from Tezpur at around 5PM. Our route to Kaziranga did give us a glimpse of the mighty Brahmaputra. The bridge at the crossing could easily be about 2-3 kms long. I was awed at the width of the river, though as such water flow was not at full capacity. We reached Kohora at 7:30 in the night, Kohora is the town nearest to the Kaziranga National Park, but has very limited economical online stay booking options. We had booked our stay at a place called Sneha Bhavan, which was basically a 3/4 bedroom house, whose 2 bedrooms were converted into rooms for guests to stay. These guys only offered stay, and didn't have food options, so we refreshed and went out for a quick dinner at Maihung, a place considered to be provide authentic Assamese food. Vegetarian options being very limited, we settled in for some Dal, Rice and Papad. 

Day 2 came to a wrap, as we prepared ourselves for an exciting jungle safari the next day.

North East Vacation!

After a two year hiatus, we decided go on an annual vacation this March. Thanks to Venky's friend who was on a bike trip to the North East. He had shared his itinerary with Venky who seemed to have liked it, and wanted to give it a shot of his own. Thus, our bookings for travel and stay were made exactly a month prior. The main highlight of the trip was, we were to talk the little boy along with us. It definitely is an exciting as well as an anxious feeling. 

Ours was a booking with a lay over at Kolkatta and a connecting flight to the Destination from there. We reached the airport atleast 3 hours early, and let Athiboy run around. The boy got so excited seeing all the aircrafts, buses and other ground force vehicles. He spent close to 2 hours roaming about the airport pointing out to the various aircrafts and was bouncing with joy when he saw a flight take off up close. And by the time we boarded our flight, the boy was exhausted beyond measure that he dozed off even before the take off! So much for my worry about how he'd react during take off. After close to an hour of sleep, he woke up, had some food and spent some time with V staring out of the window at some clouds and the sea beneath. He took me off by surprise by not creating a slightest fuss throughout the journey. 

We landed in Kolkatta at about 5:30PM and had our connecting flight from there in an hour's time. We rushed through the exit, onto the food court, grabbed some quick bite and went onto the boarding gate only to realise that the boarding wouldn't happen until 15 minutes prior to the take off time. We boarded onto the flight, and took our seats. This time around the boy wasn't sleepy and enjoyed the take off. So glad he didn't panic or have any other troubles. We kept chatting about random things, and he asked me the question of "where are we going" atleast 30 times in the one hour journey and both V and me kept repeating the same answer patiently over and over again and again till he got distracted with other stuff.

A relatively quicker flight than the previous one, we landed at Guhawati airport at 8pm. Since this was our first time we were travelling with a stop over, both V & I were anxious to have our baggage reach us safely without any mess. We both heaved a sigh of relief as soon as we saw our bags come around in the baggage belt. We picked it up and walked over to the exit and took an auto to our place of stay.

Our accommodation for the night was at a hotel called Hotel Aashiyana just 900 metres off the airport. After a quick refreshing, we ordered in some dal chawal for dinner. The boy gulped in a good amount of the rice and some curd, and called it a night. It took about 30-40 mins of random story telling and playing music to finally make him sleep. But once asleep, he didn't budge much.

Thus ended our Day1 which was pretty much just the travel. Thankfully Athi enjoyed it and didn't have / give much of a trouble. Hoping the upcoming days are better too!

Happy Birthday Naveena!

Dearest Navi, 

I still remember the first time I saw you. It was in Class XI. We generally have our morning prayers in the class, but during the week prior to the Independence day, the morning prayers happen in the ground. On one such day, while standing in line for the prayer, your earrings and hair caught my attention. A hoop earring I guess, a little bigger than what is usually worn in schools. And two pigtails on a silky smooth hair. I was in awe of both of these and kept staring at them all through the prayer for the next couple of days. I was new to the school and you were in a different section, so I had no clue about you. On the Independence Day you were part of some girls dance performance - that was the last time I caught a glimpse you. 

Fast forward to two months' later, I joined a Math Tuition. And guess who I saw sitting before me - you! I was so done with stalking you anonymously, and decided I need to talk to you. We had a common friend Shruthi, who introduced you to me, and we started exchanging pleasantries. Slowly our friendship blossomed as we got to know each other better and started talking a lot in the tuition. 

I clearly remember the one time when you invited me and Shruthi for lunch at your home. Your mom cooked one amazing meal. That was one of the finest home cooked meals I have ever had. 

By the time school got over, your dad got transferred out of Chennai, and moved to into a college hostel that didn't allow the usage of mobile phones for students. Neither did I have one of my own. We were at the mercy of home visits (for you) and parents visit (for me) to have a conversation. This continued for a year, and by second year (or probably third) you moved back home from hostel, and as we both had our phones, our conversations did pick up a little. And that's when you did the sweetest thing that I have ever had happen in my life. You invited me to your college annual day. I was ecstatic. For someone who has never stepped into a college ever before, this was the closest to having a glimpse of how college looked like. And that day, was probably one of the bestest for me. The food, the people, the place, the energy everything felt so good. Navi, a sincere heartfelt thanks to you for inviting me over back then. You never knew how much that meant to me! 

As years went by, and you further moved cities, we managed to stay in touch albeit occasionally, and met up atleast once a year when either of us travelled to the other's city. I think it was during the years after college just after you landed up your first job that our friendship blossomed to a stage where we no longer the hi-bye types, but something more, and that's when we became each other's confidants. 

Our first night out together was when I came over to your house in Bangalore for a day's stay and we went about exploring the Mallya Road and UB City, and the dozens of pictures we took out there. And out we went on our first ever trip to Gokarna with a bunch of others, and had a fun time. It then almost became an unsaid rule between us that each year, we go out on a trip somewhere or do a night out at either of our house. I genuinely enjoyed (and still enjoy) the times we spent together - speaking out our mind without having the worry of judgement. 

Our unforgettable Mumbai Trip. You definitely know how it was for both of us. The evenings in Marine Drive with Ilayaraja songs, the Andheri staff quarters stay, Zostel, shop-till-we-drop at Colaba, the Lassi at Dadar, the Worli Sea Link view, Bandra Fort, Gateway of India, Churros, the innumerable train rides, so many varieties of food, Bandra Skywalk, the Trampoline Jumps, trying to bargain with our broken Hindi. Oh, how much we fun we had. Time and again I keep reminiscing of this trip and feel thankful to have you in my life. 

And last but not the least, your Wedding! Girl, I am totally in awe of you for having pulled it all by yourself. The amount of time and energy you put in for it totally showed up in how good the actual events turned out be. And I thoroughly enjoyed all the bridesmaids duties, and felt immensely happy just being there for you.

To more years of fun, travel, banters, rants, planning to set up healthy habits, gratitude journals, random philosophies - I love you girl!

Happiest birthday to you!! May all that you wish for be granted, and have a fantabulous year ahead!

P.S.: Thanks to my ever lazy and forever procrastinating mind, I'm three days late. But better late than never - and that's why this post now!

Loads of love,

G