Six!!

Happiest 6th birthday Athiyan! 

This year began on a super crazy note. After last year’s volunteering at Jawadhu and being reunited with the CTC family, I decided to enroll for a marathon. Vagamon became the buzzword, and it had a 10K distance for the people who weren’t very confident about 36/75K. As someone who was trying to get back into running, I decided to enroll for 10K. As we were sorting out travel and accommodation arrangements, a wild thought came across my friend’s mind, which was duly passed on to me & I held it like my own little secret - we decided to make our kids run/walk the 10K loop with us. What started off as a random thought, turned out to be an actual thing, as we started the race. You managed to walked almost 3/4th of the distance, except for the last 3km stretch, by which time you’d become super exhausted and we had no choice but to carry you to the finish line. But nevertheless it was a fun experience and the whole trip was something that both of us enjoyed a lot.

Post run medal show off

We upgraded to a new cycle this year. It was a little too tall for you initially, so we had to go back to attaching the balance wheels. The initial excitement about the new cycle, waned off in a few weeks, and the cycle lay around in a sad state waiting for you to ride it regularly, but you seldom went near it. After a few months, one fine day, we decided to I remove off the balance wheels, and you managed to cycle decently without support, but had a slight fear of not being able to balance on your own at the start. Slowly, as the months went by, and with lots of constant nudging, you are now cycling regularly on your own, sometimes a little too mindlessly and faster than the permissible speed limits.

This year, your closest friends at school moved from Primary into Elementary. I was initially worried about how you’d feel about this, but then, you were quite prepared and handled that transition quite well. In the last few months though, as we enrolled you into the Art class (where you get to meet those friends from Elementary) you’re literally itching to join them and can’t wait to move into Elementary. Just 3 months to go, and you can’t contain your excitement. 

We went on a car trip to Gudalur - Ooty in May this year - just the 3 of us, you, me & V. We went to Bandipur-Mudumalai, saw lots of elephants, deer and Indian Gaurs. Watching the animals excited you, but the long car rides and no proper company (kiddos / adults showering undivided attention to you) made you feel a little too bored to the point that you refused to get into the car for almost the whole of next one month.

On the classes front, you attended the Karate class regularly and managed to move from White Belt to Yellow Belt. Music is also going steadily though with some occasional breaks given by the Master himself. We also tried something new this year - the Parkour classes. Enrolled for a 10 day summer camp in May, and you had an absolute ball of a time there, and we continued the classes once a week up until September. The class is about 12kms away from our home - the cost of transport to and fro was getting to be higher than the class fees and hence we had to discontinue it. But it was definitely a place that you enjoyed the most. Hoping something similar opens up nearby. You’ve started art classes at school from the last month, and seem to be enjoying it, mainly because you get to meet your old friends and share your snacks. As for us, enrolling to Art Class was primarily to cut down your afternoon nap, but man oh man, that’s proving to be impossible (guess they’re my genes) - you return from school at 3:50pm, and doze off immediately only be wakened up forcefully at 5:00pm. There are a few days that go by without naps, but they are far and few. Let’s see how the next year goes.

You’ve become a board and card game fanatic. We’ve started building a collection of sorts, and the world of board games is as interesting to us, adults, as it is to you. Whenever any of our friends (yours, mine or V’s) come over, it’s a play-day - you bring out all the games and have a gala time playing them with everyone. 

I’m super happy that you enjoy listening to stories and reading books. Thanks to one of your friend’s mom telling about her book readings, I took the leap and started reading Enid Blyton’s Magic Faraway Tree Collections to you, and boy-o-boy, you loved that book so much (it’s been the most favourite book from my childhood, and I’m glad to see you love it too. It’s a classic). You were so hooked on to the story that you’d hardly let a day pass by without getting me to read a few pages from the book. After this, I’ve heard to tell that you’d started reading Ruskin Bond chapter books at school, and we did manage to find out a couple of them in our apartment library and I saw you try to read them on your own. Definitely a proud moment. You are a little too young for comics, but you’ve started trying to read Tinkle - not sure if you are able to fully grasp it as yet, but it’s good to see you try.

Music still happens to be an integral part of your life. You enjoy all types, ranging from Carnatic to Tamil Cine songs to Christmas carols. We watched Taare Zameen Par movie once and since then that album has been on your playlist non-stop. In Tamil, the current favourites for sleep are Kaatrodu Pattam Pola and Aararo Aariraro. You also “vibe” (the most used word in your vocabulary in the recent days) tand sing along Monica, Jingucha, Chikitu, Makkamishi, Yaara andha payan dei. Somewhere around the mid of the year, you learnt about Smule, and were in awe about how it worked. You tried singing Oru Naalil and Poren Naa Poren, and was quite impressed by your own performance. 

Amidst all this, you somehow caught me & V redhanded while we were doing the daily Linkedin Puzzles / NY times word games and have diligently make it a point to play Mini Sudoku (to my own surprise, you caught onto the logic pretty easily) and Zip daily now. You also love to play the One Word Search and Stackdown (this still needs a lot of help from me) but you are getting better everyday. You are also obsessed with all things Space - planets, solar system, black hole, galaxies, etc., and Volcanoes. 

All in all, this year has been one of new experiences, lots of curious questions and loads of books! A few things that I really enjoy are my bike rides with you as we vibe to your favourite collections, the times that I read the book for you, the daily puzzles, our library time (though neither of us read book there) and cycle rides around the apartment. You are a happy kiddo, and may you always be so.

Love, 

Amma

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

Athi's first volunteering!

The Jawadhu Hills Ultra (JHU), a trail marathon, comprising of 30km and 60km distance, was organized by the Chennai Trail club (CTC) in Jawadhu this weekend. Being part of CTC, we naturally opted to volunteer for the event and decided to take Athi along. We have been wanting to take him to one of the CTC events for a long time now, but somehow it kept eluding and this time we decided we have got to do it. Because we were taking him along, we opted to volunteer at the start/finish point - that's the one place that has people flowing in and out all the time, unlike the aid stations that are deep in the trails, with very minimal people around other than a few locals and the runners passing by. 

Up until now, every time we take him out for trips, we'd always been carrying some quick food, and a couple of his toys. But this time, given he is almost 5 years old and this whole trip was going to be mostly outdoors (the school ground), I took a bold call that we are not carrying food - he'll have to eat whatever he's being offered, and a strict 'no' toys!

With a kid, preparation always helps - be it doctor visits, trips, friends' playdates, visiting people, anything and everything. When they are suitably prepared, they'd be ready and acceptive of changing surroundings / environment. So, every time we plan for a trip, we always ensure to tell him atleast a week in advance on where we are going, with whom, by which mode of transport, what are we going to do there, etc. and when the actual day comes, he is more ready than us and excited about the whole thing! 

And thus, our preparation for JHU with Athi began a month ago, telling him about the place, the running, what were we going to do there, how is it going to be, etc, and as the day neared, he kept popping us a variety of questions getting curious about a lot of things. As we neared the actual day of departure, we also told him about the no toys rule but promised him that he'd have other kids and an open ground to play. Although a bit reluctant at first, he agreed.

The whole of evening before the day of the departure he couldn't contain his excitement and kept asking more questions and begged us to start packing and offered so much help with that - choosing his clothes, remembering to take his toothbrush, offering to carry his bag. 

We started off on Friday morning, after breakfast and had lunch at Polur and reached the school (in Jawadhu) at around 3pm. The preparations for the event had started the previous day, and there were people all over the school ground. The Shamiyana and the chairs and tables and bibs and banners were getting set up - the energy and josh all around was palpable. Athi walked around a bit, saw other kids, but didn't really interact right away - felt a bit overwhelmed, I suppose. Venkey then took him along for a dip in the well and the boy came back rejuvenated and all ready! And that's when the bromance started between him and Aegan. Somehow (believe they conversed and understood what the other was saying) the boys figured out that they were of the same age and could as well play amongst themselves, running about the place or walking around or pulling out leaves or feeling the sand in their hands and building sandcastles. Any moment you could see them holding hands, walking around together or hugging each other. Wouldn't say it was all rosy all the time - they did have their fair share of disagreements, but nobody interfered with them and that totally helped, because before you knew they were fighting they were already back to holding hands and hugging - so adorable. Occasionally some volunteer would engage a play with them, or mind over them when they were trying to run into the dark. The whole afternoon until night, he would have hardly talked to me for 5-10 minutes - and most of the conversation revolved around me calling him to eat something, or him coming over to just check where I was and update me what he was upto. The ground was bit rocky, and he tripped once and got his knees slightly hurt, but he managed fine. A quick wash and pat later, off he went, to wander again. He came over to me excitedly post dinner appraising me of the fact that he and Aegan shared their dinner on the same plate. 

Bromancing bros!

As the night fell, the boys wanted to sleep together and dozed off as soon as their head hit the floor, even though there was so much of light and banter in the surroundings - the sheer exhaustion from all evening of play. Finally, as everyone dispersed off to sleep, we took them and put them in tents to continue the sleep. 

The race started off at 5:30AM next morning, and we were all up by 3:30-4:00AM to finish off last minute checks and set up. Athi woke up at 6AM, all excited that he had woken up early and enjoyed looking at the morning sky before sunrise. Slowly the other kids started waking up and the gang was all up again roaming around. 

After breakfast, as they were loitering around spotting monkeys, touch-me-not plants and blowing their whistles (yes, the runners were given a whistle to blow in case they were stuck somewhere in the trail and needed help), the first runner arrived. Seeing all the volunteers getting excited cheering for the runner, the kids rushed over to the finish line and were handed the medal to present it to the runner, and boy, they really loved doing that. And that is how it started - every time a runner came, they would rush over to the finish line, take their turns to give the medals. As time went by, they started running to the moment they spotted a runner running to the finish line, held out their hands to the runner, paced along with them and crossed the finish line and gave them their medals and congratulated them. Imagine someone doing all this, a 100 times over. That's what all the kids there did - the event had close to 350 runners, and these kids would have easily done this to the atleast more than half of the runners. The runners, initially surprised at seeing the kids running around, slowly started embracing them and were glad to receive their medals from them and clicked pictures with them. It was such a joy watching the kids run about happily with no worry and enjoying the event as much as we did! 

Both V and I were really glad we took Athi along for this event and are immensely grateful to other volunteering parents who decided to bring their kids along, for all this wouldn't have been possible without those other kids. Teamwork, definitely! We are pretty sure this event would be as memorable to Athi as much as it was to us. It is so true that kids learn a lot of things from observing those around them and the spirit of volunteership that was demonstrated by each volunteer out there, definitely got to the kids. 

Forever thankful to CTC for everything that it has given me :) Proud to say, Athi is also now part of CTC!

The pacer gang!

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

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.

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.

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!