Play School or no school......my gal's a rockstar!

Well, today Aisha turns 1 & a half! :-) and as any parent would start to think M mentioned "we haven't started discussing Aisha's play school & other little details you know".


That one question took me straight to a conversation I had with a lady I bumped into during a visit to Aisha's doc. This lady with her 2 year & some months old little boy who were standing in a queue outside the doctor's room asks me, "how old is your daughter" & I proudly reply, "she's 14 months old".
The lady then asked if Aisha went to play school? to which I replied,"Ofcourse No!" Me reaffirming, "She's just 14 months old you see!!!" The lady was shocked!!! "Oh!What you saying, haven't you heard of Mother Toddler, I took my son there when he was 7 months old!!!!????" She gave me a look like as if I'd come from a planet which she never knew existed!
I said,"Yes! I do but I didn't want Aisha t0 go through something like that so soon, I'd rather have her join the play group after she's two", to which the lady gave me a bewildered look & exclaimed." OMG! You've missed so much!!! Had you joined the Mothertoddler group your daughter would have recited numerous nursery rhymes by now!!! Moreover you will lose out on much more if you wait for her to turn two!!!" I maintained my calm & said," I don't think so" and that was the end of it. Well I was'nt rude.....but to the lady i had certainly lost it. Maybe she went on to discuss with her other friends & family how irrational & careless mothers today can be!!!


Well, the "You've missed so much!!!" certainly irritated me, but by virtue that the lady's son was the only kid sweet enough to reciprocate Aisha's fondness by hugging her right back when she went to hug him helped me hold back my urge to snap back.


That discussion has stayed with me till date and led me to analyse whether my little princess has lost out on anything from the absence of an early play school exposure.
Aisha identifies all the fruits and all the objects from her books.........she also religiously sits herself down with her book & pencil to do her "ABC". She recites a few rhymes, Hickory Dickory,Twinkle Twinkle, Ringa-Ringa, and Machli Jal ki Raani hain. She's picked up three languages at a time & doesn't get confused once by mixing up her languages with the wrong people! I mean, she converses in tulu with her Ajja, & with her maushi in marathi & with me in English! All of this at 1& a half!
In all this yes! maybe where Aisha would have recited 6 rhymes she recites three, where she'd know objects & shapes she instead identifies plates, spoons, dabbas, kachala (Kachra), curtains, muqutooos (Mosquitoes). She can also tell the difference between a TV remote & a cell phone. How??? Well the TV remote is held aptly in front of the TV & a cell phone to her tiny Ear into which she cooes her sweet, "haaloooo"


What's there to miss??? Infact Aisha has gained much more, the care & love of her grand parents, a fascination to the household chores (she loves dusting the chairs & wiping the floor),  she spends hours  listening & repeating each new word she comes accross.......check out her vocab.....she's brilliant! She loves identifying the pictures & objects in her books, she loves listening to music, "Do the hokey-pokey" is her favorite to dance to & "Give me some sunshine" is her favorite to sing along. She does the nananananana bit with super enthu! Play school or no school......My girl is a ROCKSTAR!!!!!

Cheers to the Earth

Where the trees blossom in vibrant colours and the sun shines in all its splendour.
Where the grass is always green & the streams bubble cheerfully throughout the year.

Long Live the Earth!!!

Save trees.....don't print unneccesarily...if you do.....use the print on both sides & two pages per sheet option. Be pro back to back photo copying

Conserve water....don't brush,shave with the water running.......don't take a shower.............use a bucket instead.

Plzzz plz plzzzz..switch off those lights when you leave the room.....not to forget your monitor when you shut down your PC too

Urge your society to try the option of installing solar panels so we can use solar energy for heating.

Plant trees, plants, shrubs whatever........every little leaf can help create more oxygen

Recycle.....use cloth bags......Just think..........If malls offered a discount of 1% on every purchase if you brought your own carry Bag!

Doable???......great...let's get started!

Cheers to the Earth..........Let's give this planet a face lift!

Collage's

A collage is a random collection of pictures but what follows below is a colection of priceless moments which Ive gathered bit by bit. These are some of the glimpses of some beautiful moments, some to capture specific dates and others just because they were too beautiful not to capture :-)

This collage here is just the three of us. The pic was taken on X-mas Day 2007. Manish & I were unaware of the baby we were expecting.....& what followed is our beautiful daughter Aisha (centre).

These collage on the right are dates & a few cute pics (from left to right: Aisha's very happy to be clicked right after her bath, Aisha immediately after shaving her head on 2nd October'2009, Aisha enjoying the evening breeze, Aisha showing off her first two teeth, Baby Beautiful Hair (best natural curls ever), Aisha shows off her climbing skills, Aisha's set for Bandra Fair, and then after Bandra Fair refreshed after her juice & bananas :-) yeah...bring them on....aisha loves bananas.

To the left is another of my favorites; (don't mind my snap in the left corner...i always find some space to put a lil of me in there :-))
The one where Manish is combing his lil girl's locks with the new hair brush(Right, second row.........Aisha was a month old then) The pic to me is beautiful......dont you think so????
The ones taken while she's asleep where she looks angelic and the last one to the extreme right below is the best...... I call it "Dada's Little Wonder", it was taken in dim lighting but brings out the moment very well. There's nothing like having your baby wrap her tiny fingers onto your finger. That's the only bit of security they need....even when they take those first baby steps.

NEXT is Brand new mum with her brand new baby.....Me & Aisha at 23 days :-)

Makar Sankranti at home & Pongal at Paati's

14th January is celebrated as Makar Sankranti in Maharashtra & as Pongal down south.The best part of Makar Sankranti & Pongal are the sweets that are prepared for the ocassion.

Pongal is a popular harvest festival in Tamil Nadu & is celebrated for over four days. visit this link for more on Pongal http://www.pongalfestival.org/. Makar Sankrant is what is celebrated in Maharashtra.
My in-laws are Shetty's from Udipi but by virtue of spending most of their lives in Maharashtra they have taken to many customs & traditions of the Maharashtrians including a love for the language :-) As amma says,"Woh naveen sadi pehenna" :-) (naveen is 'new' in Marathi)
So, as tradition would have it tilgul (a mixture of white sesame seeds and jaggery rolled into small round balls, laddoos) was prepared at home. Ladoos or small balls........Aisha made sure she had a BALL of a time right during the preparations itself. All I did was help with the rolling & while we were at that Aisha was almost ready to sit in the big plate (paraat) and juggle the yaadoos (read laddoos)

Sadly I couldn't take pics then but I did manage to click a few where Aisha & her Dad are relishing the Sankrant delicacy.

It was a holiday so after lazing the whole day it finally dawned on me that my friend Anusha had invited us over for Pongal which also fell on the same day.

WOW.............to be honest Anush, Div, Padh, Vinush & me have been friends since school. Except for Vinush all are Tam's (Tamilians) , Vinush is a mallu :-). Well, getting back to the real thing; though all my friends were Tam's I can't recollect going over to their place O_N_C_E for Pongal :-/ can't seem to remember why.

Well, Anush is back in India after a very long stint in the USA & we actually look for any opportunity to get together for some time. So Pongal it was!!!
Aisha & me trotted along ......4 floors down & ting tong :-) (Yeah Anush is also a 1st floor neighbour)

Aisha looked so pretty in a polka dotted black & white dress with a matching hair band & a shocking pink shrug (which is Aarushi's). The actuals pongal festivity of rangoli & other things were done by the time we went over but the best part was not over........delicious pongal was still doing it's rounds :-)

Paati was at home.........(Anush was out shopping with Aunty) Paati as always greeted me with the same warmth as she welcomed me when I went to Divya's place after tuitions. I still remember the flavour of the maggi noodles & the bournvita she served after we got back home from tuition. :-) Love you always paati :-* mmuuaaah

As Aisha got comfy on the couch Paati went on to serve some of the delicious pongal. I will always remember the taste of the first spoonful of pongal which I relished for quite some time because that bowl never made it's round back to me :-) It just enjoyed Aisha's company :-)

Aisha loved every bit of the Pongal & happily went on with the second helping too.

First Pongal, First one with Aisha, First one with Paati..........and it's a memory I will cherish.

The pic with Paati & Aisha is chhooooo chweeeet :-)

Pappa Dearest!

I must admit that as a kid I always frowned when people commented on how much I looked like my dad. Infact my Dad always called me his chocolate (yummmmmmmmm) sounds cute no??? No!!!! Not to me as I wanted him to call me his diamond!!! because i always associated chocolate to my dark complexion and frowned when he called me that. I also got grumpy if he called the actor Kajol, "Kaali Maina" & thought he did that to tease me. (alright, i've hit a shoe on my head already)
Dad poked fun at me once saying he won't walk my kids around if they are brown hehehehheeeee (it tickles me now) But, back then I hit back saying I'd never let him walk my kids if they were fair!!!!
Wait a minute............why am I writing all this??? Well this is for my Dada who is pappa to my daughter Aisha. He jumps like a little child every time he sees Aisha after like...... two days!!!!.......Whatever work he may have at hand, he will set it aside to fry his "Potli Girls" favorite fisssshhhhhhhhhh. Yes he does walk her around the colony even though she is brown ;-) (I love the choclate tone more when i see how good it looks on Aisha and think i was a fool to crave for a fair complexion....ahuh........ahem......OK....i am lying a bit. I always did want to be fair) He carries her in his arms.........even if it means bearing immense pain in his arm which was recently operated upon. He does bend down to wash her if she's pooped even if it means struggling to stand up right back because of his sore back (believe me my dad never carried my brother or me because of his bad back......it was always mamma.........yes yes....Nana dearest is to follow soon)

As a matter of fact Aisha does have her pappa's features & that makes me proud :-) (which means she has mine too and i'd be lying again if I said I wanted her to look like me) LOL:-) (ok that's another knuckle punch on my head)

Yeah!!! Pappa is the best!!!

Something's Fishy at Tunga International!!!!!!

It was today afternoon that Anjana decided to treat me & Alok for her birthday.We decided to go to some place close to office & Tunga met our time restrictions.

We went to the restaurant on the 2nd Floor.....or was it the third.....well, whatever the restaurant "Something Fishy" and while the story unfolds you'll realise that the restaurant is true to it's name. There is something fishy about "Something Fishy"!!!!!

Anjana, Alok & myself sat oursef down to a quite lunch......a fresh lime soda for all of us. A chicken starter, a chicken tikka masala with some couple of roti's each for the three of us......& just as we were ready to order we asked the waiter to suggest somthing else for the main course. $^&! yeah.......wait for the main thing.
The waiter suggests crab so I glance through the menu for crab items which are priced within Rs.300/- & then we OK his suggestion

The starter arrives, the boneless crab arrives, & so does the main course......& the food is good.
We then decide on caramel pudding for dessert which all the three of us decide on sharing.
& then starts the not so good, horrible & then horrifying experience.

Well, the not so good experience was with the chicken which was spicy though we were assured that it won't be spicy.
The horrible experience is from the 10 whole minutes we had to wait to get a spoon so we could start with the dessert (finally had I not gone to the counter to get the spoons myself I guess we'd be waiting for 15 minutes for spoons)

Then we ask for the bill................now 3 fresh lime sodas, rotis, one starter, chicken, crab.......how much can that be???? The bill arrives.......& the host is paying.......one 500 rupee note, and another, the third, a fourth!!!!! & OMG a fifth one too!!!
I grab the bill to check what on earth we've eaten to pay something like 2500 for a lunch for three????

That's the horrifying part..............the waiter's recommendation what we saw as 400 on the menu card was never something from the menu card. It was a whopping Rs.1800/-
I think I was ready to drop dead for allowing a waiter to recommend. But Anjana, the cool nerves that she has................just shrugged & said it was a great lunch, paid & we left the restaurant.

Lessons:
There is a lot fishy about something fishy!
never go by a steward's assurance on the spice in a dish
Never ever ask the steward for a recommendation.
If you do, ensure you ask him he price too.

It was a great time spent with friends but at a cost which was just not justifiable!!
The restaurant gets a thumbs down from me.

When photographs say more than words can

Photographs make memories in colour. They say much more than words can.

They take you back in time & in most cases a story unfolds right there as you see the photograph.

The pics below are glimpses of a beautiful year that's gone by.

                              

The first four photographs(from the top....left to right) are taken on 2nd October just before we took Aisha for a "Head Shave"

Believe me, it was very difficult watching those lovely curls being chopped off :-(

Aisha took it very well though see she is "no hair & all smiles" the very next day!!!

The pics above are very dear to me. That's my FIL carrying Aisha......& the next one was taken on Christmas Eve (2009) Aisha lends a helping hand with X-Mas decorations.

                                                                      

Above are what we call "Perfect Pics" yeah......the awesome threesome (the first one was taken at Kapu Beach in Mangalore & the second was taken on 9th October which was the day of Aisha's naming ceremony)

From left to right above: Daddy's girl, Aisha's awakening at 21 days (our favorite) and the next one is Self photography at it best- the pic was taken on my birthday (2009). It was taken by me while looking into a mirror :-)

The above pics are of Aisha & her cousin Alaina.

The first one was taken when we went to visit my cousin Genu after her delivery (see the beautiful bundle, sleeping beauty) and the next one at a common friend's wedding where Aisha was all over Alaina as though she was a live doll & all Aisha wanted to do is cuddle & kiss the little doll.

Another of my favorite......at the left in my young cousin Azhar in who's lap Aisha fits so perfectly.

Azhar is fondly looking at Aisha & Aisha back at him. They were so lost they even forgot to look at the camera ;-)

At the right is a priceless photograph. That's the four generations pic.......

(from above: Nana, mamma, Aisha's mamma & Aisha )