Fun Five!

Don't get fooled by the title, I was just trying to have an alliterative one. I'm rather tired of starting every birthday post with a "Phew-I-can't-believe-you-are-already-five". So, I'm putting this one as "what-an-amazing-year-it's-been". Hands down one of the bestest. I definitely loved all the time I spent with you and cherish them so much, because this shall never repeat. The innocence, the curious questions - why, when, what, how, the joy of living in the present, the pride of being able to do things on your own - both for yourself and for others.

The year started off with a Snake Walk weekend - and this time it included a friend from your school, Kavin. After we had him over for your birthday, and he had us over for his (apparently, both of your birthdays are 5 days apart, albeit you are a year younger) - we asked him to join us for this event, and oh boy, you guys had crazy fun running around the paddy fields, spotting touch-me-nots (this is where the touch-me-not obsession started) bathing in mini waterfalls, and by the time the event actually began, you guys were half exhausted, but nevertheless enjoyed the show.  This was your third time in the walk, and you quite knew how it worked, and enjoyed the whole thing. Kavin being there with you was a cherry on the top! 

And then it happened - something we never dreamt of, even in our wildest dreams - just landed in our lap, like it were literally waiting for us - we moved into CDS, right next door to my parents. It's a dream life for you (of course, for me too!) having both thathas and paatis to shower unconditional love and all their attention whenever you are around. You took to the transition quite happily, as this was place you were already familiar with (my parents & V's cousin have been living in this community for a while now). There were hardly one or two instances in the last 10 odd months since we moved here, when you said you missed the Ram Nagar house. 

Come April, we did another vacation to Goa. Yes, 2 Goa vacations within a span of 2 years. This time though, Ultimate Frisbee was the reason. We had our Masters Nationals in Goa, and thought we could extend it to make it a family vacation, and took along 2 other cousins, who were too kind to take care of you while we were at the games. And in those 7 days, you doted on them so much, and vice versa. This was also the trip you unleashed your boredom as hunger chiming an "I'm hungry ma, I'm hungry ma" at the slightest hint of boredom. This was also where you finally agreed to eat Dosa with Sambhar, and eggs in burji form rather than being boiled. We had finally bade a goodbye to carrying quick foods for you. Phew! That's a definitely a game changer - because it's been pushing you to try new foods, which you eventually ended up liking. 

Once back home from the trip, and with 2 months of summer holidays ahead, we enrolled you for swimming classes. Swimming has been one skill that I strongly believe every person should learn - a life skill it is, and opens up so much of the world for exploring (given 70% of earth is covered in water, lol). It was an hour long class every day of the week except Sunday, at 3pm in the noon. You really enjoyed the class, thanks to the master, and started picking up the skill slowly. By the end of June, you were able to jump into the 3-4ft pool and swim its width on your own without any support. I was definitely proud. But things took a turn, once school reopened. The class timing didn't fit as you were quite exhausted from school and it was bang during your nap time, and the distance was also a factor - 20min drive from our home, you'd sometimes doze off right halfway through the drive. We felt it was too much of a stress on you, and decided to give the classes a break, and we still continue to be on the break. I've been meaning to check another pool nearby, but keep procrastinating - may be by the next summer vacation, all over again. Let's see! 

Your energy levels are insane and it's quite hard to manage you inside the house and hence, we have enrolled you in a music class (our neighbor has been kind enough to take you in as his pupil) and some karate and yoga in a small play school right behind our apartment. You love the music class because a handful of your friends from the apartment are there with you and basically you enjoy singing a lot. Your music taste is super varied, right from Carnatic and Devotional to cinema/album folk / kuthu songs, you enjoy them all - with the same love. Oru Naalil and Poren Naa Poren are the ones that we have named as practice songs, and you have either been hearing or singing them almost every other day and know them by heart now. Your Kaathu Mela Kaathu Keezha singing in a recent family wedding garnered so much of fans within the family. I'm so glad you enjoy music.

Your first movie with your school friends - Inside Out 2. It was mommy and kids day out with 5 of your classmates. The movie, I felt, was a little overboard for a 4-year-old, because this one was mainly about teenage and the emotions associated with teens. But you guys nevertheless had a ball of time wrecking the theatre, hogging buckets of popcorn, and running around with each other. Phew! It was quite a task to watch the movie with your constant questions and distractions. 

With September, came our (V & me) Australia trip. Yes, it was just me and V travelling for 15-21 days without you. You were in the custody of your grandparents and boy, you were stunning. You got through those 15 days like a breeze, except for an occasional 'I miss you ma, I miss you pa' - thanks to the weddings in the family that happened during this time, you got to meet a lot of cousins and relatives to spend time with. Honestly, I did miss you too, more than I would care to admit, and we definitely understood we can't go out on another such long trip without you, you'd definitely bombard us with a lot of questions together with a very convincing answer as to why you should be taken along as well. I still remember the way you asked me "enaku en ma Australia ku visa edukala?" when we said we were gonna go to Australia

Another place that I'd been taking you quite a few times is the Anna Centenary Library - hoping you grow to enjoy books as much as I do. The fact that you are able to read stuff is making you curious much, and you try reading a lot of nameboards, vehicles, posters, anything and everything. Writing is also on the cards, but you ain't really keen about it and find it very boring. Thankfully though you are able to decently write, and we are trying to make you write about your day, a meek attempt at journaling. It's fun reading what you write, given you rely heavily on phonetics for your spelling. Takes us a while to figure out what that word means, but honestly, we are in awe at the ease with which you are writing.

I had wanted to introduce you the world of jigsaw puzzles, and thanks to my friend who gifted you one late last year - it was a 30-piece puzzle, and I could see you intrigued ! We slowly ventured into 35, 40, 60, and 100-pc puzzles. You love our trips to Untangled, the house of puzzles. We also got you some board games, and you are now hooked to it and want to play it with anybody and everybody that comes home for a visit - akkas, annas, chitappas, chitis, any one trying to have a word or two with you ends up with Forrest Run (a board game that we recently got) laid out in front, before even they know it! 

You enjoy the late evening / night cycling around the apartment, and until about a month ago, you rode the bicycle with the balance wheels on. We had removed one of them, about 3-4months ago, but you weren't quite sure and okay to remove the other one. But one fine weekend, hit with a little boredom, we decided to remove the other one too, and booom.. in 15 minutes you started riding like a pro! I was stumped at the speed with which you were able to adapt to cycling without balance wheels. Great job kid! 

You really know your people well, i.e. whom to go for what. On things that me and V wouldn't normally approve of, you conveniently reach out to the grandparents and get it done. But I can also sense that you do not abuse this option. You happen to be quite smart in picking your battles and when to use the trump card. You are quite strong willed and unless you genuinely believe you had made a mistake, it's super hard to get you to apologise. If you inadvertently cause a physical hurt to someone while you were rushing through something, you promptly chime in the apology without any nudge from anyone. 

I'm really glad for all the people you have and share a bond with in your life. You are such a people person. It's been an absolute pleasure seeing you grow kiddo. 

Happiest 5th birthday! Here's to more growing up, exploring new places, and of course, loads of music!

Love,

Amma

Happy 4 to us!

Dearest boy, 

Every year when I sit to write this post, I try re-reading the last one, and I'm so glad that I wrote it, because there are so many things that I seem to have forgotten now, and it really helps refreshing my memory (a kutti self-appreciation for myself for documenting these - these are my biggest treasures) 

The year began with our 9-day road trip to Goa in car. Yeah, we did it boy! That long road trip which V desperately wanted to do finally happened during the 2022 Christmas holidays and 2023 New Year. We took along my brother and another cousin of mine. It was an amazing trip - one which each one of us will cherish forever for various reasons. And you were rock solid throughout the trip - absolutely enjoying the drive, the beaches, bike rides, boating. I think your favourite part of the entire trip was the beach baths every evening in South Goa - where you'd sit in the shore digging the sand for shells, with the wave splashing against the lower half of your body. Every evening we'd spend an hour that way and go over for an early dinner. You mostly survived on French Fries, plain rice, some days chapathi / bread, and curd. Of course, Cornflakes and milk were your non-negotiables - we had taken along a supply of the cornflakes and thankfully, milk was available everywhere. One of the weirdest habits of yours is - you eat the cornflakes dry and then gulp down a glass of milk. You'd never approved of cornflakes being soaked in milk (until last week when you have started demanding the cornflakes to be doused with a generous portion of milk). 

We have been taking you to the Decathlon once in a while and let you ride around there in the cycles, and guess what, you self-upgraded from riding the scooters and balance bikes to riding a proper cycle with balance wheels. I was a bit surprised that you didn't think twice before taking that cycle and starting to ride it. Somehow you knew, you could ride it. V tried really hard to make you ride a cycle directly without balance wheels, but I guess that's hard, and we might have to go the usual way of riding with the balance wheels for a while before you make the switch to a proper cycle with just two wheels. 

You had your first official summer holidays for 2 months this year, and we were so lost on what to do to keep you engaged and stay away from the screen as much as possible. We couldn't plan out a proper vacation this time, so we got you enrolled in a week-long summer camp. Though you were initially excited to go there - on the first day, the anxiety kicked in. After 2-3 days you were mostly fine. They kept sending us pictures of the kids at class and you were so excited to see them every day, which sort of stayed as motivation for you to keep going 

As the school re-opened again, we waited with bated breath to hear those golden words, a.k.a the letter telling us that you'd be staying in school till 2:30pm, i.e. full day (till then it was only 8-11am). As your teachers from the prior year had changed, it took even longer than we anticipated, and it was only after 3 months that you finally received the letter. Nevertheless, it was a big moment. You were as excited as us to take your lunch to school and settled into the full day school quite effortlessly. With regards to finishing off your lunch, I can only say, there are good days, and not-so-good days. Training myself to take it one day at a time.

This year has been the biggest burst in terms of the oral communication - language - English, to be precise. You generally enjoy talking, but until very recently, your talks were mostly in the native language, Tamil. And now, it's taken a full 180-degree shift to English. Not sure what brought about this sudden change - the school, or your friends, or the television - but simply put - you walk English, talk English, live English! Admire how you painstakingly try to communicate every single thing in English and pause to ask us how something needs to be communicated when you don't know to. 

Thatha and you are still an inseparable combo, spending a lot of time every evening in the terrace or the car parking chasing / shooting imaginary Spidermen and Spiderwomen. That brings me to your biggest craze of the year - SPIDERMAN! Ever since you learnt about this character, you've been going bonkers about it. Jumping around and landing with a palm on the floor, releasing webs into the space, and what not. Batman, Antman, Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk are also in the league, but Spiderman is your most favouritest. Paati once got you a spiderman dress and you wore it every single day for one straight week and we'd to hide it away to make you stop wearing it all the time. You've started appreciating cartoons and know a handful of them now, ranging from Paw Patrol to PJ Masks to Minions and Peppa Pig. Muddy puddle jumps excite you, and whenever there's rain, there'd be a small puddle of water (on the cemented floor) in your school campus where you and your gang of friends would keep jumping around, only to get a little wet and go about having your clothes changed.

Music is still very much a part of your life, and you have your own playlist of devotional songs to make you sleep. The first ever cine song that you were trained to sing (purely by way of repetitive hearing) was the story stanza of Dada song. You absolutely enjoy watching as well as singing it. This year also saw the introduction of gaana songs, such as Salomiya, Kathadikudhu Kathadikudhu and new numbers such as Naa Ready and Hukum - where you don't hesitate to use your own words to align to the tune when the lyrics aren't understandable.

We went on our first long train journey to Pune and you thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a week-long vacation in Pune and Mumbai where your best times were had with Simba (the retriever), Double Decker bus rides, Zenith Waterfalls, Gateway of India boat ride, Pragathi Express Vistara Dome, Local Train journeys, Airport Lounge Food, and of course how can I forget - Alexa. The first time you saw it at Adi's home, you were shocked to see it respond to people's commands, and that became your very cue. You'd so cutely go to Alexa and say - Alexa, please play Kathadikudhu Kathadikudhu and Alexa would apologize for not having that song in its library and play another Deva song for you. 

And lastly, December began with the infamous Chennai Floods. With power, and network completely down, people didn't have a choice but to come out of their homes and talk with fellow beings. Thankfully the damage to our home was minimal, and we survived those 3 days without power with much less stress. And in those three days, you and all the other kids at the apartment definitely had one of your best times getting undivided attention from everyone. Thankfully things returned to normalcy within a week. However, your school was closed for almost 2 weeks, and it's only this week that you'd returned back to school. It's definitely evident that you enjoy your school and being with your friends, as you always come out of the class happily. Honestly, so glad about that.

Happy birthday, Boy! To more wonderful times, and joyful conversations!

Love,
Amma

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 :)

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.

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

2021 !! Katham Katham!!

I have always been fascinated by the idea of recollecting the events of the whole year during the end of the year, and ever since I started this blog, I wanted to document them every year. But then there is always the demon called "procrastination" and my-ever-loving friend "laziness" who convince me every year to skip this, except for 2 years (where the zeal to write overpowered these guys). This year again, I am fighting the demons and hope that this post sees the light of the day.

As far as the year is concerned, 2021 started good, turned silent, hit the wrong chord bang in the middle of the year, and continued faltering almost till the end, but managed to not end disastrously (for which I will be eternally grateful). My life this whole year was an exact replica of how the world was. Confused. Worried. Anxious. But at the same time, thankful and grateful for the privilege, people and the support around me.

The year started off with Athiboy's first year birthday celebrations, and then a quick 2-day trip to Mangrove Bay Camp - a place off Chidambaram where we went on stand up paddles in the Kollidam River. It was the first trip with just the 3 of us and we all really enjoyed it.

As the restrictions started relaxing, we all hoped things would be back to normal. Around March, my mother's foot's condition worsened and she could neither walk for long, nor take the stairs. So we started scouting for a new house for them and after a lot of back and forth arguments, and a whole lot of convincing, we shifted them near my home. Just when it seemed that things had started to settle down, we got the biggest blow. My parents tested positive for Covid. Luckily, they'd both taken both the vaccine doses - so the infection was not severe, but the mental stress was too much to handle for everyone. The whole of June got lost in Covid and recovering from it. In my experience, Covid is as much a mental stress to the care taker as it is for the infected person. It is torturous. I wouldn't want anyone to go through this. 

If there are two things that were a sweet surprise to me this year, it has to be my birthday and Ultimate Frisbee. Birthday surprise was my little brother (not-so-little anymore) gifting me a mobile phone. For years, every time I buy him something or give him money, he used to tell me that one day he'd get me the latest mobile at his expense - which, even though I'd listen to him say, but would eventually ignore. This year he totally surprised me by getting it when I least expected it. Definitely one of the star highlights of the year. 

Next, Ultimate Frisbee! It is a mixed gender sport, played with a disc. It is intense, but lovely. V has been into this sport since late 2019, and has been convincing me to join him ever since the kiddo turned one. The awareness about this game in India is very less, and even lesser in TN. There are only a handful of people who know and play the game. So, after hearing V talk about it day in and day out for close to 2 years, I thought I'd atleast go see it once before I turn down his request to join. But the moment I got some sense of how the game worked, I started liking it and wanted to know more. There is a whole lot to learn from the game, and I am definitely looking forward to it in the coming years. 

The final challenge of the year came in the last 2 months, which were on a whole different level. For the first time in 4 years of marriage, I had to take full ownership of the running the house as my mother-in-law became a little sick. It was only at this time that I truly understood how big a task it is to keep the house functioning as it is. I understood what my mother and father had been doing all these years, I understood how much my mother-in-law toiled all these years. It was a challenge to juggle between office work and the household chores, but I tried to do smart work, and my mind was always looking for ways to get things done quickly and parallelly mostly by planning in advance, and not shying away from asking for help whenever I felt like I needed some.  

Lastly, a few things about Athi! This is possibly one of the best phases with him. He's an energy bomb, his excitement is contagious. He runs about the house repeating all that we say in his mazhalai. Loves car rides, thatha paati, reading books, toy cars, balance cycles, bike rides. Dances to the tune of quite a few tamil songs. Is a die hard Rava Kesari fan. Can't imagine him growing up and going to school, but at the same time, can't wait for him to grow up soon. 

Hope 2022 would be a great year for everyone. Happy New Year!!

20 Months

Dearest Athiboy,

I skipped the 18 months timeline for my post, hence, writing this now when you arw almost close to 20 months. Time is literally flying, but only for you. When the whole world is almost in a standstill because of Corona, you seem to be growing and learning new things. This phase of your life is truly engaging and joyous. Watching you do all the things that you have learnt by observing us, is a real joy. 

After about a month or two walking around with the Nadavandi you switched on to walking on your own. Well, special thanks to V, as he was the one who initiated it, by making you stand a foot away from me and letting you go, so that you'd just do a thathakath buthak walk without support and reach out to me. (It reminds of the way people helped me swim in Nagala during one of the treks). After we kept doing it for a couple of times, you got the hang of it and started walking around. For the first 2 weeks, you'd walk only when you wanted. Neighbors in the apartment would literally beg you to walk while in the mottamadi (in the evenings) but you wouldn't budge, and would simply go around crawling on the floor. Slowly but steadily you understood walking was more fun and less of an hassle than crawling and you shifted on to walk. There was no stopping you then. These days, you run like crazy from one room to the other in the house, in the car parking and the mottamadi, anywhere and everywhere. There still some slight unbalance and  you do fall quite a few times everyday, but that will only stop you for 2 minutes at the max, when you demand an ice pack, and then you are back at running again. Your energy levels are unmatchable. 

Fishes are something that you really enjoy watching. You demand that the lights on the fish tank (at home) be turned on every time you look at it. You also mimic trying to feed them food, the way Thatha does everyday. Observation skills on point! There is a small fish pond in the apartment complex that my parents live in, and you have never missed to stop and admire them, every time we go to visit them. Also, fish is probably the first set of words from your mouth after amma, appa, enna, etc. And yes, its not fish, its ish for you, F is silent. (or rather F is hard to pronounce)

If there is one thing that can make you sit down in one place for more than 5-10 minutes, its got to be the books. We have a decent collection of books for you, some bought and some gifted. You seem to enjoy flipping through those, and by now, are able to identify quite a few things. We have almost established a night time book reading routine. I am glad you like books. There is a whole world out there in the books which I really don't want you to miss, and I wish you'd like books as much as I do, as you grow.

If there are two things that have not changed almost since the beginning, it has got to be your love for Bathing and Drums. Both of them are your utmost favorite things. There have been numerous times when we have taken you to the bathroom to get only your hands & legs washed, but ended up bathing you. And what more, these days you demand you need your bath tub while bathing. We got you a small bath tub when you were about 4-5months old, and always bathed you in it. But there are days when we'd want you to have a quick bath, so we don't use your bath tub. But in the recent days, you have made sure we always use only your bath tub while bathing you. If not, you keep calling out "ab...ab...", pointing out to it all the while until we bring it over and put you in it.

As for Drums, its something that comes naturally to you, and something that you enjoy seeing / listening to. Our latest favorite is the Violin & Flute cover of Ottagatha Kattiko. The joy on your face when you see that thumbnail on the TV and realize that's the song we are going to play is unmatchable. You have also started enjoying songs like Life of Ram, Unnaku enna venum sollu, for the visuals, especially the fishes, birds, amazing locations. 

We have finally put an end card to our breastfeeding journey at about 18 months. The weaning itself was quite challenging initially, but slowly everything settled in. Thanks to you, for liking bottled milk and a huge thanks to mil who was more than happy to have you sleep with her so that we wean. 

Your food choices are almost similar to my very own, only difference being your indispensable love for curd. I am not much of a curd person per se, but you seem to li(o)ve curd. Its always curd with idli / dosa / upma / rice or anything for that matter. Its your first and only choice. The way you lick it off the plate or cup is so adorable (except for the fact that I have to bathe you once more for all the mess you create and become). Your fruit intake is quite low, but that's matched up with an overflowing love for carrots and potatoes or any vegetables for that matter. Carrot, I guess owing to its bright orange color, seems to be your favorite in veggies. Till now, you are not much of a fussy eater, and mostly happy with whatever we feed you, which is a real savior for us. There have, however, been days when you refused everything but curd, but thankfully they were just short phases.

You love bike and car rides, and don't think twice before jumping into the arms of anyone who offers to take you for a ride. We did go out to a lake sometime last month. Though you love bathing at home, you simply refused to set your foot into the water there. I think we might need to take you there more often to help you like that place and enjoy the waters. A friend had a small inflatable boat which he had brought to the lake, and you loved sitting on the boat with V and rowing around in the water. From that day on, whenever you spot a boat or a raft or anything floating in water with a person, you immediately assume it to be V and point to it and call out Appa - its been a kannula thanni vechunda moment for V.

Lastly, thank you so much for coming into our lives. Your little antics and actions make our every day interesting and joyous. Its really wonderful seeing you grow.

Love,

Amma

11 Months!

Dearest Athiboy,

You are just one month away from being a year old. I tried reading my older posts and started feeling nostalgic, because so much has changed since then and keeps changing all the time. One of the biggest changes is, the transition from the so-called social bird to a kid who gets a little scared when meeting new people. You are a happy kid in your home ground, but once we cross it, you tend to be a little worried and cling on to known faces a little more than usual. In home ground, you call random people on the road and laugh, smile and interact with them as if you'd always known them. But outside home ground, your usual self takes a backseat and you are quite tensed and worried.

Your smiles are no longer toothless. You have 4 teeth now, 2 up and 2 down. You have learnt to bite things, like toys, spoons and waterbottles. Yet to start biting people. 

This month, you have started to lift yourself up and stand with the help of support or by holding onto sofas. I simply can't forget the number of times you kept trying to lift yourself up from the ground. Despite failing each time, you kept trying day in and day out, and you still keep trying to lift yourself up without any support. Just another couple of weeks / months after which I think you will be completely on your own. 

Day naps still continue to be a challenge, but people at home have almost gotten used to your pattern of sleep and things are comparatively better than the initial days. Nights are surprisingly becoming smoother and easier. I'm a little too skeptical to rejoice at this change for the fear of you going back to your old ways again.  

You seem to have seen a lot of cows and dogs on the road and seem to jump in joy when you spot them. And what more, whenever you see a dog, you make a cute sound (almost similar to the ju..ju..ju..) as if you are trying to interact with it. 

Oh, and one more thing that I observed this month was, you have learnt to squeeze the rubber toys, the toys with a whistle in them. We had been having that toy ever since you were 3-4 months old, but its only now that you have learnt to squeeze it hard enough to hear the sound. And the look of accomplishment on your face once the sound comes, pah, chance eh ila!

You are legs boy, i.e. anything at all that you play with will be taken in your hand and then placed between your legs for playing. You absolutely love when you are able to create sounds. So your most favourite thing to play with is drum (We have a mini Djembe at home, given to Venky by a friend of his) and next in queue is utensils, waterbottles and bells. And how do you play the Djembe? Only by supporting it with your legs. It's the single most thing that seems to give you immense pleasure anytime. Be in whatever cranky mood or sleepiness, the sight of the Djembe will instantly bring a smile on your face. 

We introduced Poochi a.k.a Dragonfly to you sometime this month, and guess what, you wanted to catch hold of it and play with it. Curious little fellow you are. Always interested in anything and everything. 

Diwali went by, and we both had an amazing time gazing at the numerous fire crackers that lit the sky from our terrace. We spent almost 1-2 hours turning our heads trying to catch a glimpse of the colors on the sky. You liked the sparkles and the flower pots too, but you most enjoyed the night shots only. You got a little shocked when you heard bombs that burst nearby, but didn't cry inconsolably at the constant sounds throughout those two days, which was quite surprising. 

You are growing more inquisitive day-by-day which is very visible in your eyes, and quite soon you will start putting your curious observations into questions. Ah, I just can't wait to see all that. I am really excited to see you grow kid. 

If there is one thing that has changed in me in all this time, I seem to invariably see you in every kid that I come across on the roads, or shops or anywhere at all. I can't help but wonder when looking at kids older than you, on how would you be at that age. When looking at kids younger than you, I remember how you were at that age. My mind seems to be so full of you, most of the time. I have totally fallen in love with you Athiya!

Endrendrum, 

Amma

7 Months!

Dearest Athiboy,

Before I begin writing each month's post, I make sure to read the previous month's post to remind myself of what all I have written. While doing so this time, I was kind of surprised at myself for having written so much. I don't seem to have too many things to write about this month, because life and the whole world as such is seems to be moving in a pace so slow that even the snail's walk seems faster. So here goes this month's updates -

Foot in mouth - Check! Yes, right after a couple of days since you turned 6 months, you managed to put your toes in the mouth. Reminded me of the good old Gokul Santol Talcum Powder logo. But the real joy lay in seeing you constantly trying it, and how your feet would just wriggle out of your hands most often as you tried to lift it up till your mouth.

I have finally figured out that you have started recognizing me as your mother (This word still makes tremble a little with excitement and anxiety). There have been days when you make a sudden cry while sleeping, and the moment I lift you and put you over my shoulders, you calm down in an instant. I simply can't put in words, the way I feel at that moment, purely priceless. I love the way you give your toothless grin when I come out after work to play with you. All these little happy moments make all the tough times worth it.

Evenings are for Terrace Walks, which you absolutely enjoy. The excitement on your face the moment we put you are made to wear a shirt is a sight to behold. You have a couple of "mottamadi buddies" already, a Thatha from the adjacent flat, the Moringa Tree, and the flat neighbors who come in for a walk in the terrace in the evenings. Spending anywhere between 30-45 minutes, you return back to take a power nap for 30-45 minutes as if you are tired after a whole day's work. 

Finally after 3 months, we are back to my parent's place for 15 days. And guess how you reacted! You see each person and started crying, and the moment I come near you, you start laughing. I wasn't sure if I had to be happy that you'd recognized me or sad that you weren't happy with so many people around. But slowly you started adopting and in the next 2 days, you got used to everyone around and have started playing with anybody who wants to play with you. Putting back on the floor / bed after playing with you is like diffusing a bomb, you either roll over happily or start crying a.k.a demanding you be lifted off the floor again, there is no in-between. Its surprising to know that you realize and understand the warmth of a human touch. Great job there, kid! 

You day naps are a shame to naps themselves, because they last not a minute more than half an hour. Sometimes, the time taken to make you sleep is more than the time you actually sleep. But I am not fully complaining because you sleep during the nights, so thank you! 

You have started sitting with some support, and hence, we have got you a feeding chair. Feeding you food in it is comparatively easier, because you can't really move around in it. Without that, it is a big task to make you sit in one position and feed, because you keep jumping to your feet and always want to keep standing. As for eating, you have started accepting other foods pretty graciously (I'm not sure if that's the right word). Right now, you eat koozh, idlis, mashed apples and bananas, a bit of rice with boiled potatoes, carrots etc. I believe you will grow to like and appreciate food, because you really enjoy eating. Also, nobody can eat their food when you're around without feeling a twinge of guilt, because you simply keep staring at their plate pleading with your eyes to give a portion of it to you.  

As such you are a happy kid, as long as you are not hungry or sleepy, and enjoy your time, rolling around, putting random things into your mouth or trying to lick the floor or having long last conversations with the digital clock.

You enjoy the car rides we take when we got to the hospital for your monthly check-up and I sincerely can't wait to take you out to the beaches and parks and to all your cousins' homes. 

Signing off with the lines of a song that resonates so much with me right now. Its from a tamil movie called Muppozhudhum Un Karpanaigal. A very rough translation of those lines are - At one instant, the mother wants her child to grow up and care for her, but the next second she wants the child to stay as a kid forever. I think this is more of a Mom's Syndrome, and every mother would go through this at some point in time. 

இந்த நிமிடம் நீயும் வளர்ந்து
என்னைத்தாங்க ஏங்கினேன்
அடுத்தக்கணமே குழந்தையாக
என்றும் இருக்க வேண்டினேன்

Love, 

Amma

5 Months!

Dearest Athiboy, 

I think I have finally started feeling that time is flying, because you seem to be growing quite fast, becoming all the more cute and irresistible every passing day.

Yayyyy! This month is a Double Dhamkka, as you've achieved two milestones. Firstly, you have FOUND YOUR VOICE. You have realised that you've a voice and keep showing that to us by constantly shrieking with excitement. Generally, 3pm-4pm is your shriek hour. You're at your best at this time, constantly shrieking with joy, kicking your legs and laughing.

Secondly, after what felt like ages for us, but actually has been only 5 months, you ROLLED OVER. You've been desperately trying to roll over by turning to your sides for the last 1 week and finally, 3 days ago, you pulled it off. And guess what, the first time you did it, nobody saw you. I had fed you and put you in the bed to play, and had gone over to do something outside signalling V to keep an eye on you. He was busy with a work call and once that got over, he turned around to see you banging your face into the bedspread, dripping a mouthful of drool on my phone, and almost started shouting at me for leaving you that way unattended. It took him a couple of moments to realise that you'd indeed rolled over on your own. Well, great job kid! I'm impressed by your determination and how you didn't give up trying  continuously for one whole week before you actually rolled over.  

You sweat a lot. So much sweat that the cloth in which we lay you down always get wet where your back touches it. Given the Chennai summers, these days, you are most often moved into either of the air-conditioned rooms of the house and almost refuse to sleep when you don't have enough air.

As much as you loved thooli last month, you've absolutely ditched it now, main reason being it's in the Hall, and not in one of the air-conditioned bedrooms. You've grown to sleep either in the carseat-cum-rocker and mostly sleep only while listening to songs. This month's new favourite songs being Chellamma Chellamma and Amaidhiyaana Nadhiyinile. If you're half asleep and there's a change of song, you immediately open your eyes and kick your legs to listen on what's going to be played next. And once you realise it's just another of your usual songs, you slowly drift off to sleep.

Your nap times range from anywhere between 20 minutes to 40 minutes at the most, except for one big nap, either late afternoon / early evening. Its one nap I totally enjoy (for my own selfish reasons), because I lay you over me, and hug you around and both of us enjoy a good sleep for 1-2 hours. Sometimes, I try to put you down thinking you are in deep sleep, but the moment your body touches the bed, you start stretching, twisting and turning & wake up in 10-15 minutes.

You have been introduced to the world's magic potion called "water". Though the first week was more of making weird faces and spitting, you have slowly started to like it. You happily gulp down a couple of millilitres, after a heavy shrieking session. 

You're mostly a happy-go-lucky kid, and your cries for food or attention has always been subtle. One of the reasons being, there are always people around you who jump in to pacify on your slightest whim. However, this month we put our first surprise visit to the Paed one evening, because you cried non-stop for 20 minutes scaring your Thatha so much so that he literally dragged us to take you to the doc right away. But by the time we stepped out of the house you stopped crying and acted all chamathu in front of the doctor, making us wonder why did we take you there. Turns out you had colic, which could've caused a stomach ache, making you cry in pain. You occasionally throw in that high decibel-closed eyes cries when waking up from sleep, but with people lifting, patting and talking to you, you slowly open your eyes. Once the eyes open and scan the surroundings, the cry changes to smile almost instantaneously. 

If there's one good thing about the COVID lockdown, it has be the Work-from-home option for V. He's lucky enough to see you grow, and spend a good amount of time with you. He's your terrace partner. Almost 3-4 days a week, he takes you out to the terrace in the evenings. Walking around with you over his shoulders, occasionally stopping by near the Murungamaram and watching you get all excited as the leaves sway with the wind. You love playing with your sleeping dad in the mornings. Every morning, the routine goes like, I wake up, you wake up; I feed you, you half sleep, I put you down next your dad asking him to keep an eye on you. And guess what he does? He doesn't even open his eyes (of course, he wants extra sleep) but instead gives a finger of his in your hands. You hold that tight, play around with it, try to put it in your mouth (but mostly fail to), laugh and talk to it, while your dad conveniently stays in sleep all the while (if you ask him, he might deny this saying he wasn't sleeping, but just keeping his eyes closed).

In these 5 months, I have seen myself change so much. My love for you has definitely grown over this time. From the initial days when neither of us understood what the other person wants, I've grown to understand you slowly. Its sometimes a guessing game, where occasionally I do fail, but most times, I succeed in guessing what exactly bothers you, be it sleep or hunger or just some human touch. 

As much as I love my job and have been desperate to get back ever since the start of my maternity leave, I've started feeling a little concerned that we'll not be able to spend so much time like this together anymore. I think the separation anxiety has kicked in for me. But no matter what, I will always love you Bul. Hope you do too! 

Love,

Amma

Musings of my mind - II

There are some things that I observe around me and which have quite an impact on me, and I believe most of you reading this might agree with me. 

One: 

Everyone in this world need some kind of motivation / appreciation / recognition for their efforts, just like how we expect recognition for our efforts in work / office. Unless such appreciation or recognition keep coming, people are bound to get frustrated and annoyed quite often. This applies to families as well. 

I feel, we generally take family for granted for things that are being done for us. If somebody in our family does something for us, how often have we taken time to appreciate it? Almost never right? Why do we deny them that? What do we lose in spending a few minutes to let them know what their work means to you? If not daily, atleast once in a while, we can surely do this. It'd instantly make them happy and also make them feel important. 

For example, when someone takes an effort to cook something new, even though it's not something you like, or that it didn't taste the way you like, before you comment on how it is, please take a moment to appreciate the effort they put in. That'd instantly boost them up. Later on, you can let them know what you didn't like. Also, the key is in the way you communicate it to them. I'd recommend putting it out as an improvement point, rather than an outright negative comment. Eg. You could use phrases like, "so-and-so could have been better", instead of an outright "I don't like it". This will surely create a positive impact on the recipient. 

Two:

The world is filled with people who are so different from each other. Each one has a certain way of doing things, and most often it may not be the same way that you'd do it or like it to be done. The end results, however, are going to be the same. 

When we need a work to be done by someone, why are we so persistent that it has to be done the way we do it? Once we delegate a work to somebody, we keep making corrections to their approach to the extent that drives the other person to think why they agreed to do that work in the first place, and the next time they wouldn't bother asking if they could help you and you'd be left doing all the work yourself. Further, you also lose the right to constantly tell that all the work is done only by you and nobody is helping out. Help was offered, but you were only too stubborn to accept it the way it came. 

So, whenever you need help, ask for it and mention the key things to be done or the result you need. Learn not to micro manage and accept the work as it gets done. This way the person delegating can relax and the person who does the work would also feel good that they were able contribute something in the chores. 

Have any of you faced these situations? If so, do let me know your suggestions on how else these things can be handled in a better way.

D 63 Rajaji Road Block 25 Neyveli

I don't realize how fast time runs by until I see the date of the previous blog post in here. Its been 3 months since my last post, and so much has changed since then.

And the mother of all changes is my parents moving out of Neyveli. After a lot of deliberations and my father's untiring attempts at getting a transfer to Neyveli for my mother, which have only become futile, he finally gave in the letter for surrendering the house where he had spent the best part of his life for almost 25 years.

I never believed that changing houses would affect you mentally and emotionally until now. It is really difficult to accept the fact that I would no longer be running into Platform No. 1 in CMBT to board a rickety bus to rush home. I would forever miss breathing in the familiar cool air which would welcome me every time as the bust enters the town premises after the 5-hour long journey.

That house sure holds a million memories of all the years that were spent there. A few little things from my childhood times -

• We moved here when I was about 2-3 years old. I still remember how my grandfather and I would sit in the swing early in the mornings as my mother left for work. These were the days when I was normal and well behaved. On days when I woke up cranky, I wouldn't let my mother leave to work and would have to be literally dragged into the house by my aunt.
• During the rainy days, my grandpa and me would each sit on a chair and watch water flowing across the road, sipping our morning coffee and milk respectively. These are probably the only times I remember being close to my grandpa. As the years went by, age caught up with him and he was confined to his room for most part of the day, barring the morning newspaper and lunch time.
• Unlike the houses here in Chennai, where every house has a terrace, houses out in Neyveli did not have terrace. In fact, I never knew house would have terrace until I was in Class 5. All we had was a roof with Tar and Little gravels poured over. As the world moved from corporation tap waters to storing waters in tanks, we had a couple tanks installed at our home on these roofs. A ladder was laid from the ground to the roof to check on the water level in the tanks frequently. I fondly the summer holidays when me and my brother would climb on the roofs during the afternoons and pick the mangoes that fall off from the trees or simply just lie on the roof staring at the sky and the birds flying around. How I wish time had just stopped by then and there?!
• The house was always bustling with activity and there would be someone or the other visiting all the time. Panguni Uthiram is my all time favorite. It would literally be "house-full" during that festival as all the relatives would throng our house. 

The two best-est (if such a word exists) things about this house was -

1. The Thottam (Garden) - From tamarinds to coconuts to mangoes to Jackfruits to Musambis, the house had it all. Every summer, when anybody from Chennai came down to visit us, my father makes it a point to send along as many jackfruits as the vehicle could bear for all the numerous relatives in Chennai. 
2. The Oonjal (Swing) - Every single person who visited the house, would surely take a two minute time out to sit on this swing. It was pure bliss. Though I am not much of a swing person, I sure do enjoy spending sometime on it on a lazy weekend. 

This post can never do justice to all the memories that were created in that house, but it is just a small attempt to document a few things that will be forever be cherished.

Finally, a picture of the house! It used to be very shady, until a few years ago when we had cyclones destroy a lot trees in the whole town. From then on, the house kind of started looking a little barren.

And the Oonjal! This also had a asbestos roofing which again got damaged in the cyclone, nevertheless it was a pleasure swinging in it during the dusk.

Until next time,

G

I'm the appatucker!

Well folks, it's official, I'm a Chartered Accountant now, and what more, I'm placed. Ok, the results came almost 2 months back. Being the lazy brat that I am, I kept procrastinating this post. I better not delay it anymore, lest I forget the entire episode.

Result day. 

After having tasted failure in one group in the previous exams, this time I was ready for anything, but of course, I was nervous. So on the day of the result, I went about doing my usual chores and proceeded to the tailoring class (took this up as a hobby to keep myself occupied).

This time around, I wasn't really hopeful that I'd make it , because of that one last paper which had practically screwed my hope of clearing the exams. The moment I saw that question paper, I knew I was in for a toss. My eyes were almost brimming with tears. I didn't understand half of what had been asked in the question paper. Having written the previous exam really well and this being the last exam, I became a little over confident and lethargic. Somehow I managed to stay in the exam hall for the whole 3 hours and write whatever that came to my mind, instead of just walking off right away, though the latter option seemed the right thing to do.

Now coming back to the present, the results were due at 2 PM, but I know they'd be released around 10 or 11 AM. I started becoming more nervous by every passing minute. But since there were a lot of people around in the class, I kept engaging in conversations with them to reduce the nervousness. At around 11 30 AM, I got a call from friend. The results were out. She was like, donkey, didn't check whatsapp, you cleared with a total score of 200 (FYI, a 200 on 400 is the pass mark). I had made it through.. HURRAYYYYYY!!!! 

I called up my dad, and he was like, come home right away. And when I did come home, the look on his face said it all. He was really really happy. All I could think of was, thank god, I didn't let him down again. Still I hadn't checked out the individual scores. As expected the penultimate paper was the saviour of the day, a 65 in that had helped in reaching in the reaching in the total of 200. And in the last paper which I was so worried about, the score was 44. Not bad! 

It still felt like a dream. Here I was a qualified chartered accountant, a course which I had decided to take up 7 years ago for the mere reason that I didn't want to do engineering. Calls  kept flooding the whole day with relatives and friends congratulating me on the success and wishing luck!

Like they say, once you succeed, all stories become success stories. The same happened with me too. 

5 years of hardship, all for these 2 letters, CA. All that I can hope for now is, these words are worth the hype that surround them.

P.S.: Placement episodes, a separate post!

Ciao!!