When someone comes knocking......

If there's anything that can break the mundane life in most nuclear families today, that would be a visit from either set of parents. My in laws left last month and parents will be here in a week. And the fact that the No Objection certificate for my mom took for ever to arrive makes the trip even more worthwhile. I plan to hand over the kitchen completely to mom and enjoy mom's food for the next month or so. Aditi is super excited too. She's already discussing with her tata-pati what they should bring for her. And I think my excitement has rubbed off on her - if i tell her my amma-appa are coming, she points out that its her tata-pati who are coming and i should refer to them as her tata-pati and not my parents!

Its been a really long wait and we are totally glad to be able to meet each other. My parents have been listening to Adi chat and have been wanting to see her in person for the longest time. Hoping that they don't go overboard with all the things they are bringing for their daughter and grand daughter.

UK Citizenship

Its no secret that one of the reasons to move out of one's own country is to get the coveted citizenship in the Western World- to be accepted as one among them and most importantly to get the 'red' passport. Well, six years, 2 months and 10 days after we entered this country, we now are official citizens of this country. Aditi did not have to wait that long, she had her permanent residency(equivalent to the US Green Card) by birth and citizenship was more or less given to her. There was hardly any fuss in the whole process, however I have learnt that the OCI process is a the complete opposite. Wish us luck with the OCI....

HikeCream

Our social club in the company that I work for, organizes trips around Sheffield and the Peak District regularly. I have never been to any of these, but a few weeks back, an email drew my attention. It was lunch in a pub, followed by walking along the lake and ended at a very popular ice-cream farm.So my typical mommy instinct read it as walk in a lake along the farms - where we could see plenty of farm animals. I almost completely missed the hike part and the fact that my level of fitness isn't really suitable for hiking. On the map, it lasted 40 minutes and I thought I could carry Aditi on my back as she would not be able to walk the entire distance. And Prashanth dropped us at 1:30, the group had just finished lunch and were getting ready for the hike. I got Aditi new walking shoes and they were really useful. We walked along the lake for 5 minutes, and while the directions to the ice-cream farm pointed left, we took a right and climbed 2 hilly mountains waded through fields and foresty regions with tall trees and over grown shrubs. By then I was holding the group up, as I was carrying Aditi on my back and trying to climb hilly fields with a backpack filled with water/juice bottles. And tired is a very small term to describe how I felt. At some point half way thru the hiking, we lost our way and spent a while map-reading and picking the shortest way to get to the farm. By then the juice and water that Aditi had consumed turned into calls of nature and she wanted to wee. I requested her to use the foresty shrubs, but the girl refused. She wanted to go home and use the toilet! We then approached some byroads and a narrow walking path, where after repeated requests, she obliged. I had to hold her up and teach her how to wee on the roadside! We walked for a total of 2 hours and 20 minutes and finally reached our destination. Everyone was exhausted especially the last 30 minutes and we all ordered a double scoop of icecream. Aditi noticed a bouncy castle nearby and spent an hour or so, jumping up and down. To her credit, she walked the last 30 minutes all by herself as there was not an ounce of energy left in me to carry her. Prashanth picked us up from the farm, and I went home and slept until the next morning. My legs were as hard as rock and all I did was rest that evening. I was unprepared for the hike to say the least, but it opened my eyes to the very poor level of fitness in me! Time to get fit....

Then and Now

Then:
When Aditi was about to be 2 years old, my neighbour had a baby and when we went to visit them, I picked up the baby. Aditi screamed so loudly that I had to return it in less than 10 seconds.

Now:
Almost a year and ahalf later, we visited a 9 month old baby and took plenty of snaps with me carrying the baby or the baby on my lap, Aditi comes home, looks at those pics repeatedly and demands why she wasn't sitting on my knee! Atleast thats better than screaming in front of the hosts.....