The Swiss trip happened in August and I never got around to blog about it. So here is a brief account of our recent trip to the historical capital Rome and the water city of Venice. It was a six day trip planned well in advance unlike the Swiss trip which was literally a last minute booking. I was more organised this time and opted for a self catering accomodation and we survived on home-cooked food for 4 days. We also bought a child carrier for Aditi as I had quite a tough time carrying her around in Switzerland. The first 3 days were spent in Rome, the next 2 days in Venice and the last day in Pisa.
Day 1: Woke up at 2 am, drove to East Midlands airport to catch an early morning flight to Rome. The flight was uneventful and had no trouble from Aditi while securing the seat belt. Took the coach from Rome airport to the city and walked to the apartment. And heres where the fun begins. The apartment was really well done. It had been recently refurbished and we were probably one of the its first tenants. It was exactly as it had been described and with tram and bus lines running right outside on the street, the position could not have been better.A supermarket closeby and buses straight to the colosseum. We had a lunch of idli/chutney, had a nice hot shower and left to explore Rome. Our first halt was the colosseum.We spent quite a bit of time exploring the inside of the colosseum and taking lots of pictures. On our way back, we spotted a park and Aditi was delighted. That was her part of the holiday. We usually hit a park or beach in the evenings so Aditi can have some fun. She played for a while on the slide, watched the dogs and enjoyed herself. We visited the supermarket later and had chappattis and subzis for dinner.
Day 2:
Had a good night's rest, followed by home made breakfast and we left early that day. We were to take the open top double decker bus from the main station. There are about half a dozen companies that run this service and we chose one with a 3 day ticket that also allowed us to use the public transport in Rome. We visited the Pantheon, a few Squares and then hit the Vatican just after lunch. It was breathtaking. Right in the middle of a modern city, you see this huge monumnet - brilliant architecture that was created almost 1400 years ago.It took us around 2 hours to complete the tour - and Aditi slept the whole time in her child carrier. Both of us were eager to try an authentic italian pizza and the first one we had near the Vatican was a disappointment.It was nowhere as good as the Pizza Hut or Dominos one. My MIL wanted us to light a candle and here we found electronic candles in every church. You drop a coin in the box and a tiny LED light comes on. Really nice. We then left for the Trevi fountain. This place was terribly crowded, but we found a quiet corner. We took turns to drop a coin into the wishing fountain, and then threw another one each over our left shoulder. We drank water straight from the tap - thats considered a visitor attraction here. Aditi enjoyed it all, drinking water from the lion's mouth, wetting her clothes and being very happy licking her cone ice cream. She loved exploring it all with us, happily posed for pictures and enjoyed the food we gave her.
Day 3:
More sight seeing happened today.We booked our tickets to Venice, enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate. It really is melted chocolate, unlike the hot chocolate we get in Britain. Enjoyed a vege panini. It was heavenly and we were very hungry and exhausted too. Realised that we are vege people. That cheese and bread is not for us. But salads - always welcome, never boring. Hit the shopping center of Rome and shopped aroudn for a few souveniors. Went to McD to be totally disappointed with their Vege burger. Their was no cutlet thing inside the burger, just 2 leaves of lettuce, a slice of cheese, tomato and cucumber. Climbed up the Vittorio to get a panaromic view of Rome. Learnt that its better to carry more cash than cards. More than we think it might be necessary.
Day 4:
We debated quite a bit on our leaving time. I wanted to catch the 6:50AM train and reach Venice by 11:20, but Prashanth was nto sure if we'd be up and ready, The next one was at 8:50AM, which would go into Venice by 13:20 - well past lunch time for Aditi, which I wanted to avoid. I knew we'd be able to leave on time, so we booked the 6:50AM train. Left our self catering apartment early that morning and reached the train station - had a quick coffee and boarded the train. Nothing spectacular about the train itself, we reached Venice before noon. And the sight that struck us was so beautiful. right outside the station is the Grand Canal and it was buzzing with activity at that time. Lots of people getting in and out of the boats/gondolas and the stretch of water that seemed never ending - it was fantastic. We were in love with this place. We did not want to let go the water out of our sight, but we had to check into our hotel. We walked through the narrow lanes and watched the shops dotted all along our route and our hotel was in another narrow lane. The room was on the second floorr and after having lived in a spacious self catering apartment, this felt rather tiny. A quick shower and lunch later(I had prepared curd rice that morning and packed it for our lunch), we hit the boat stop closest to our hotel. Aditi was as excited as we were and kept saying boat - We go boating. She loved the waters. We went to the San Marco area which is the typical tourist spot - went around all the touristy places - more churches, clock tower, the narrow lanes and bridges - we loved it all. Venice is famous for its glassware and although I was tempted to buy so many lovely articles- Prashanth was successful in preventing me from doing so. He convinced me that it may not be possible to carry them back in a good state, and I'd be terrribly upset if they broke during transit, so we bought none of the glassware. We went on the boats for a while, enjoyed taking different routes, shopped at a supermarket and headed back to the hotel. After another shower, we went out to dine in an authentic Italian restaurant. I had already fed Aditi her dinner and thankfully they had a high chair, which was very useful. We ordered pizzas, but they allowed no sharing. So we had to eat a whole pizza all by ourselves. The base itself was very thin and it tasted authentic, but one whole 10 inch pizza was a bit too much for me. And worse - we were not allowed to take away the leftovers - because they had nothing to pack them in. The bill came as a shock - what with 12% service charge added to it, but the pizza tasted great - so no whining there.
Day 5:
We had no itenary in place, just decided to visit the islands around Venice and the first one we went to was Lido. Lido is a smaller version of Blackpool considering that there are lots of casinos. This is a very well formed island. the roads are neat, the pavements are wide -it was like suddenly stepping into an English town - it was too organized after the lovely chaos that was Venice. We walked down the main road to reach the other end of town - to a beach - hardly populated beach. There were in all about 10 people on the beach and we had fun. Its been a relaly long time since I went to a beach, cant really recall when I went last time, so it was total fun. It was the first time Aditi was taken to a beach, so she had fun playing on the sands, collecting shells and being a little girl. The water was not too cold and perfect for her to dip her feet. We posed for some photographs and had tea at the beach restaurant. I had fed Aditi her sandwich at the beach before we treaded on the waters, so I wasnt expecting her to be hungry. We gave her a glass of hot chocolate when we had tea. But when we were walking back after about 2 hours on the beach in the morning sun, she wanted lunch. Aditi was sitting on her child carrier and when she spotted a bench on the pavement, she asked me to put her down. We thought she probably wanted to stretch her legs and brought her down. She hopped over to the bench, asked us to sit down and said - Let's have sandwich. We were surprised - the way she declared she was hungry - it was so cute. So we sat down, fed her and went back to board the ferry to Venice. We left Lido after spending the morning on the beach - the real fun part of our trip and went to yet another bridge in Venice - this time taking a completely different route. I was stunned to see a university in the middle of the waters. We had covered various routes by now and had almost taken all possible means of transport in Venice.We went to the trains station and bookedo ur tickets to Pisa, shopped for a bit at the supermarket and went back to the hotel. Unlike the previous day, we opted for a simple dinner. I was unable to eat a lasagne in Italy, but none of the restaurants had a veggie option - really none of them - and we checked atleast a dozen restaurants. since the lasagnes are layered in advance, there was no option to remove the meat portions.
Day 6:
We left shortly after breakfast at the hotel, bid goodbye to Venice and were off to Pisa. This was the last item on our itenary - to visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa and we were waiting to get back home. But Pisa did not disappoint us. We had to change trains enroute and just about managed to catch our connecting local train to Pisa. We had to activate tickets when travelling on a local train, but the lady ticket inspector was extremely friendly and waived our fine. We took a bus from the train station and were in front of the leaning tower in less than 10 minutes.And there are a couple of monuments to admire before you get to the Leaning Tower. Wikipedia gives the details about the history of this tower. Children below 8 years old are not allowed to enter the tower. So me and Prashanth had to take turns to sit with Aditi while the other went up. There were about 300 spiral steps leading to the top and the feeling on top was wonderful. The weather was perfect as well for early October - we had enough sunshine to get tanned. We booked our return flights from Pisa, so stopped over at McD, before taking the same bus to the airport. One thing new to this trip was I had atleast half a dozen people ask me how I managed to bring a toddler along on a sight seeing trip. I met a couple in the Tower of Pisa - from Scotland, who had left their toddler daughter back home.another one at the airport who also got someone to babysit their toddler. I also had quite a few strangers ask me about the child carrier and why the child would not walk around everywhere(!!). How do they expect a two and a half year old to walk all day along in crowded touristy places? We spent a while window shopping at the airport and finally sensed a huge sigh of relief as we landed in Britain. An hour later we were home. Aditi slept on the rturn flight as well and gave us no trouble putting on the seat belts. A lovely trip indeed.
Aditi has learnt the concept of time. She has learnt that we leave if its 20 past 8 in the morning and we come home in the evening by 6'o' clock. That shes allowed to play with her friends(the girls as she calls them), until 7'o' clock. Dinner is at 7:30pm and so on...Every few minutes, she comes and asks me - What time is it? And then repeats whatever I say. Its so cute to see her do that.
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Creating the Golu
Golu is traditionally celebrated for nine days, but for many like me the world over, preparations begin many weeks in advance. My trip to Leicester to find more Golu bommai did not end too well and we returned almost as soon as we reached there. So the hunt began locally and after gathering quite a few new dolls for this year, we went about buying other little gifts that made the Golu very special. I started off with a small list of invitees for my Golu, but its grown over 4 times and there were over a dozen families over the Navarathri period. Aditi enjoyed the most I think, decked up in Indian dress and lots of bangles. The little girl is hooked on to fancy bangles now.
I spent the weekends looking for return gifts, found some lovely paper bags to put them in, bought some dry fruits to be put in the tamboolam bag instead of sundal(sundal was to be eaten at home). My neighbour and friend D volunteered to help me arrange the Golu as Prashanth was working nights that weekend. We had a great time - typical girly chats, late night teas and plenty of snacks, giggling away and once managing to wake Aditi up in the process. We started at about 9:30 and finished by 11:45 at night. I had sort of arranged the steps with cardboard boxes and books and D provided feedback, rearranged some of them until both of us were fully satified with the result. Two heads were definitely better than one. Earlier in the week, I had washed and ironed 2 of Prashanth's white veshtis to spread over the golu padis. The steps were just long enough that the border of the veshtis formed a red and green border on either side of the padis. Then began the fun part of actually arranging the dolls on the steps. D & I again rearranged them until we were extremely happy, discarding some away. We had another round of snacks and some photo sessions later and D left. I proceeded to clean up the place, stack the boxes that contained the dolls away, put some lights on and finally went to bed by 2 am.
Last year, I kept the Golu in the study, because I was scared Aditi would pull all the toys down. This year I took a bit of risk and set it up downstairs in our kitchen diner which overlooked the garden and was much bigger than the study. I had told Aditi that night I would be keeping the Golu with D aunty and that she should not touch it, but can see the Golu. I least expected her to remember it. The next morning my little girl wakes up, gives a big smile when she sees that I'm still in bed lying next to her and then tells me - "Amma, u keep Golu, I not touch it, I see it". I was surprised to say the least. The little girl has been so sweet with looking after the Golu, wearing Indian clothes, matching bindis and bangles and being a girly girl really. She does ask for a toy from the Golu, mostly from the park or from the zoo , plays with it for a bit and returns it back to its original position. She's also been extremely happy to hand out the tamboolam bags and take one for herself each time. Thankfully she only wants empty bags, so thats fine by me.
Sunday was Saraswati Pooja, we placed some of our books including Aditi's in front of the Golu and then went over to do the Ayudha pooja. Aditi was super excited to put chandan/kumkum on her bicycle and mine, we then did a little pooja for the car and soon left for an Indian Dasara meet - lunch and fun at a huge community hall. Aditi had total fun playing with balloons and we returned around 7PM exhausted, but happy. On monday morning after a little Vijayadasami pooja and making Aditi read a few lines from her books, we have officially completed the Navarathri. One doll was put to rest at night and I packed off the dolls and sent them to the attic until next year.
I spent the weekends looking for return gifts, found some lovely paper bags to put them in, bought some dry fruits to be put in the tamboolam bag instead of sundal(sundal was to be eaten at home). My neighbour and friend D volunteered to help me arrange the Golu as Prashanth was working nights that weekend. We had a great time - typical girly chats, late night teas and plenty of snacks, giggling away and once managing to wake Aditi up in the process. We started at about 9:30 and finished by 11:45 at night. I had sort of arranged the steps with cardboard boxes and books and D provided feedback, rearranged some of them until both of us were fully satified with the result. Two heads were definitely better than one. Earlier in the week, I had washed and ironed 2 of Prashanth's white veshtis to spread over the golu padis. The steps were just long enough that the border of the veshtis formed a red and green border on either side of the padis. Then began the fun part of actually arranging the dolls on the steps. D & I again rearranged them until we were extremely happy, discarding some away. We had another round of snacks and some photo sessions later and D left. I proceeded to clean up the place, stack the boxes that contained the dolls away, put some lights on and finally went to bed by 2 am.
Last year, I kept the Golu in the study, because I was scared Aditi would pull all the toys down. This year I took a bit of risk and set it up downstairs in our kitchen diner which overlooked the garden and was much bigger than the study. I had told Aditi that night I would be keeping the Golu with D aunty and that she should not touch it, but can see the Golu. I least expected her to remember it. The next morning my little girl wakes up, gives a big smile when she sees that I'm still in bed lying next to her and then tells me - "Amma, u keep Golu, I not touch it, I see it". I was surprised to say the least. The little girl has been so sweet with looking after the Golu, wearing Indian clothes, matching bindis and bangles and being a girly girl really. She does ask for a toy from the Golu, mostly from the park or from the zoo , plays with it for a bit and returns it back to its original position. She's also been extremely happy to hand out the tamboolam bags and take one for herself each time. Thankfully she only wants empty bags, so thats fine by me.
Sunday was Saraswati Pooja, we placed some of our books including Aditi's in front of the Golu and then went over to do the Ayudha pooja. Aditi was super excited to put chandan/kumkum on her bicycle and mine, we then did a little pooja for the car and soon left for an Indian Dasara meet - lunch and fun at a huge community hall. Aditi had total fun playing with balloons and we returned around 7PM exhausted, but happy. On monday morning after a little Vijayadasami pooja and making Aditi read a few lines from her books, we have officially completed the Navarathri. One doll was put to rest at night and I packed off the dolls and sent them to the attic until next year.
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Golu 2009
Its been a busy weekend with visitors flowing in and out. Here are some pictures from this year's Golu. Write up will follow shortly.
Thursday, 10 September 2009
The bicycle
Remember the times when you would rent a bicycle for an hour for a rupee and beg your parents to help you out on the road?I have had many of them when I was about nine years old. We then moved to Chennai, where my cousin and I would still rent bicycles from the local shop and have fun on the roads. All this stopped when my cousin was gifted a BSA champ bicycle with stabilizers. This became our pride and joy and a ride on this bike was almost always the first thing we did every morning before leaving for school. When I was 12 and my cosuin was 11, we had our own bicycles - a Hercules and a Hero to take to school regularly. For Aditi, the bicycle interest started early on. Every evening over the last month or so, she would be seen sitting on a little bicycle with stabilizers when I went to pick her up in the nursery. There are about half a dozen kids in our estate, who own bikes and go for joy-rides in the evenings. Aditi would normally ask for lollipop, but whenever she saw one of these bicycles, she would stop and stare at them and ask for one. It would go something like - 'Amma, Where is my bicycle?' Thoughts of my own childhood flashed from time to time and we decided to get her one. Two weeks back on the sunday, when Prashanth was at work, I took her to the local bike shop. she was excited to say the least. She got onto a little pink bicycle with stabilizers - a test one and started riding it all over the shop floor. We tried another little yellow and pink one. I explained to her that we could not take one home that day as we did not bring the car. The next evening when Prashanth came to pick us up, we went straight to the bike shop. Aditi rode the little bicycyle again to impress her dad and we brought home a yellow and pink one, fitted with stabilizers. She's got a little red helmet and wears it proudly before every biking session. Her two friends aged six and nine come knocking on our door, if we do not take her out for her bike rides every evening. Overall it has been fun so far, to watch my little princess ride carefully on the road outside our house. It helps that we live in a cul-de-sac inside an estate, for there's hardly any traffic in the evenings. Yesterday, I met a lady with her little daughter, who's moved recently into Sheffield and lives in our estate. Aditi was on her bike riding spree and the lady asked me if I had skipped the tricycle stage. I was astonished - it made me question myself - Should I have bought Aditi a tricycle before moving her onto a bicycle? I know she's ridden or tried to ride a tricycle in her nursery. I ahve seen her on it when she was younger. But what I have seen and learnt is children never RIDE a tricycle. They just move it with their legs on the floor for a long time and by the time they learn to pedal, have almost outgrown the tricycle. The bicyle makes it easier to pedal and the stabilizers do provide the support. The only drawback I can think of is that it can only be used outdoors. Given that we live in an estate that's closed to public traffic, it was easier for me to make the choice. I hope Aditi does not demand pictures of her on a tricycle when she grows up!
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Bindis and the litle lady
I love bindis. I wear them everyday - mostly the marron coloured shingar stick bindi, sometimes the small round sticker ones and occasionally fancy bindis. I love them so much that my mother never fails to pack a set of fancy sticker ones each time I leave from Chennai. I am not so fond of earrings or bangles, but bindis - they are a must for me. It seems when I was around 2 years old, I'd allow my dad to leave for work, only if he took me to the shop nearby and bought me a packet of the sticker ones everyday, and then I would proceed to stick them all over my face.
My not so little girl loves them - much more than I do. And one day she ransacked my precious belongings. She wants to wear a new one from a newer packet every day.
Every morning, after her shower, she would wait patiently for me to dress her up and then open my dressing drawer, pick a new bindi and stick it on her face. And when it did not settle in right, she would ask me to put it 'properly' for her. By the time I picked her up from the nursery in the evening, they would no longer be on her face and she would have binned them during the day. I watched with agony as my lovely collection of the red stickers diminished. I was thinking of probably hiding my collection and only leaving a few for her, but I knew that would not work. She would 'demand' for the new packets.
Thankfully, as with all things at her age, the interest only lasted a short while and now, she no longer wants them. Occassionally, she wants the one on my face, but since mine is usually done with the shingar stick, it cant be removed and stuck on hers! One another reason to have(or not have) a daughter..
My not so little girl loves them - much more than I do. And one day she ransacked my precious belongings. She wants to wear a new one from a newer packet every day.
Every morning, after her shower, she would wait patiently for me to dress her up and then open my dressing drawer, pick a new bindi and stick it on her face. And when it did not settle in right, she would ask me to put it 'properly' for her. By the time I picked her up from the nursery in the evening, they would no longer be on her face and she would have binned them during the day. I watched with agony as my lovely collection of the red stickers diminished. I was thinking of probably hiding my collection and only leaving a few for her, but I knew that would not work. She would 'demand' for the new packets.
Thankfully, as with all things at her age, the interest only lasted a short while and now, she no longer wants them. Occassionally, she wants the one on my face, but since mine is usually done with the shingar stick, it cant be removed and stuck on hers! One another reason to have(or not have) a daughter..
Friday, 28 August 2009
Ganesh Chathurthi
A trip to Birmingham:
On Saturday the 3 of us readied ourselves for our first ever long journey in the new BMW - a visit to the famous Balaji temple in Dudley. It is the biggest hindu temple in the UK. We had arranged for an abhishekam that morning around 10AM. So we left home around 7:45. The drive took us around 2 hours - we would have reached faster had itn ot been for the road works and the slow speed zone for quite a distance. Fifteen minutes on the road and Aditi wanted to get down or go to her nursery and be deposited with her keyworker. She did not like being tied down to the carseat and we sang many nursery rhymes to keep her busy. She insisted on sitting on my lap, which was forbidden anyway by lay in this country. She tried to sleep but the morning sun kept disturbing her! We reached exactly two hours after we left, made our way to the reception,completed formalities and payments and went upstairs to the actual sannidhi. The curtain was drawn, so we had a quick darshan of the other dieties and sat down for the curtain to rise. Aditi was extrememly excited with the darshan of monkey-god. She's been watching Ramayan on NDTV Imagine and is very fond of Hanuman. The abhishekam started around 10am and Aditi kept asking various questions while each liquid was being poured. She looked at the idol who was well oiled and said - 'Swami crying' - The oil appeared so to her and she wanted to know why Swami was crying. She wanted to have milk when the paal abhishekam was performed. She patiently waited until all the abhishekams were performed. And enjoyed placing flowers near the kumbham. While we waited for the Lord to be decorated, we went around the other dieties - Ganesha, Muruga and Navagraha temples. We were fortunate to also take part in the Vishwa Santhi homam and perform Deepa pooja for world peace. Aditi and I made a quick trip to the car for a snack and we all went back to the main temple for the Managala arthi. The place was extremely crowded, being a saturday and after the arthi, we got special abhishekam prasadam and more laddus for friends and neighbours.There's a little tent behind the main temple where lunch is served on saturdays. Here we met one of my college mates, who volunteers at the temple every week. He recognized me and we quickly exchanged contact details. Aditi enjoyed the lunch - rice, sambar, moong curry and kesari. We posed for a few pictures near the ranganathar temple, where a fountain has been set up. Had a quick tea at the famous Dosa stall and started our drive backhome. Aditi slept throughout the journey, which meant I enjoyed the ride back, listening to old time classics on the iPod.
Ganesh Chathurthi:We went shopping for groceries late on saturday night and returned with three bags of goodies. After sorting them all out and cutting veggies for the next morning, I quickly decided on the menu. We had invited a couple of people over for lunch on sunday. I got started on the lunch preprations after sorting out breakfast and before nine am was done with most part of the cooking. Then came the cleaning. Prashanth joined in and we made the house look presentable. After a quick shower, I proceeded to arrange the pooja with all my Ganesh murthis. Prashanth gave Aditi her shower and they chose a pink and purple dress to wear for the occassion. We also celebrate Gowri puja, a practise I started only five years ago and Aditi happily helped me pick flowers from the garden and place it(Well, she played with the rose petals dipping them in water). We then tied the sacred yellow thread and I recited a few slokas. Then comes Ganesh pooja. We took a little break, I started making the modaks(which unfortunately did not turn out as nice as they did last year!) and we offered the same to Ganesha. All done and ready by 1, we waited for our guests to arrive. They made us wait longer than expected and arrived fianlly by 2:30pm.I gave Aditi her lunch and we finally had ours around 3pm. Too late by our standards... Anyway we had a nice time until about 5 pm and they left home. Aditi was excited to have people around her and wanted to know why the aunty could not stay with us for ever. She went off to play on her bicycle later with her two older friends who live in the same estate.
On Saturday the 3 of us readied ourselves for our first ever long journey in the new BMW - a visit to the famous Balaji temple in Dudley. It is the biggest hindu temple in the UK. We had arranged for an abhishekam that morning around 10AM. So we left home around 7:45. The drive took us around 2 hours - we would have reached faster had itn ot been for the road works and the slow speed zone for quite a distance. Fifteen minutes on the road and Aditi wanted to get down or go to her nursery and be deposited with her keyworker. She did not like being tied down to the carseat and we sang many nursery rhymes to keep her busy. She insisted on sitting on my lap, which was forbidden anyway by lay in this country. She tried to sleep but the morning sun kept disturbing her! We reached exactly two hours after we left, made our way to the reception,completed formalities and payments and went upstairs to the actual sannidhi. The curtain was drawn, so we had a quick darshan of the other dieties and sat down for the curtain to rise. Aditi was extrememly excited with the darshan of monkey-god. She's been watching Ramayan on NDTV Imagine and is very fond of Hanuman. The abhishekam started around 10am and Aditi kept asking various questions while each liquid was being poured. She looked at the idol who was well oiled and said - 'Swami crying' - The oil appeared so to her and she wanted to know why Swami was crying. She wanted to have milk when the paal abhishekam was performed. She patiently waited until all the abhishekams were performed. And enjoyed placing flowers near the kumbham. While we waited for the Lord to be decorated, we went around the other dieties - Ganesha, Muruga and Navagraha temples. We were fortunate to also take part in the Vishwa Santhi homam and perform Deepa pooja for world peace. Aditi and I made a quick trip to the car for a snack and we all went back to the main temple for the Managala arthi. The place was extremely crowded, being a saturday and after the arthi, we got special abhishekam prasadam and more laddus for friends and neighbours.There's a little tent behind the main temple where lunch is served on saturdays. Here we met one of my college mates, who volunteers at the temple every week. He recognized me and we quickly exchanged contact details. Aditi enjoyed the lunch - rice, sambar, moong curry and kesari. We posed for a few pictures near the ranganathar temple, where a fountain has been set up. Had a quick tea at the famous Dosa stall and started our drive backhome. Aditi slept throughout the journey, which meant I enjoyed the ride back, listening to old time classics on the iPod.
Ganesh Chathurthi:We went shopping for groceries late on saturday night and returned with three bags of goodies. After sorting them all out and cutting veggies for the next morning, I quickly decided on the menu. We had invited a couple of people over for lunch on sunday. I got started on the lunch preprations after sorting out breakfast and before nine am was done with most part of the cooking. Then came the cleaning. Prashanth joined in and we made the house look presentable. After a quick shower, I proceeded to arrange the pooja with all my Ganesh murthis. Prashanth gave Aditi her shower and they chose a pink and purple dress to wear for the occassion. We also celebrate Gowri puja, a practise I started only five years ago and Aditi happily helped me pick flowers from the garden and place it(Well, she played with the rose petals dipping them in water). We then tied the sacred yellow thread and I recited a few slokas. Then comes Ganesh pooja. We took a little break, I started making the modaks(which unfortunately did not turn out as nice as they did last year!) and we offered the same to Ganesha. All done and ready by 1, we waited for our guests to arrive. They made us wait longer than expected and arrived fianlly by 2:30pm.I gave Aditi her lunch and we finally had ours around 3pm. Too late by our standards... Anyway we had a nice time until about 5 pm and they left home. Aditi was excited to have people around her and wanted to know why the aunty could not stay with us for ever. She went off to play on her bicycle later with her two older friends who live in the same estate.
Friday, 14 August 2009
Krishna Janmashtami
Janmashtami this year did not have any of the funfare it held in the last few years in our household. The year Aditi was born, we dressed her up as Krishna and last year as Radha, but this year I made no such effort. I could blame partly on the Swiss trip that had left me completely exhausted and we arrived just a day earlier. Or I could use another excuse that the internet told me it was on friday and I thought I had a day to 'prepare' for the festival, and found out on the previous night that it was on thursday and not on friday. But they are lame excuses I know very well. I had no plans to make any kind of sweet preparation this year, because we are both on a low calorie diet and Aditi does not like sweets. I had planned it to be a simple affair right from the start. No sweets or savories, just milk, curd, butter and aval I thought to myself.
But the Lord had other plans. I got up early that morning and Aditi woke up with me, so we finished all our morning chores well in time and had lots more time on our hand. Rather than settling with her book on the couch, I decided to do the padams with the freshly prepared dosa batter from the previous night. Drew a simple kolam outside and little padams all the way upto the pooja shelf. Aditi helped me by walking carefully around the little padams.She was fascinated by them to say the least. More time left, so I decided to do up the pooja shelf. A freshly blossomed tulip was plucked and offered to the little krishna statues. A little prayer was said and a bhajan sung and we left for our repsective locations to spend the day. On our way back, I picked some fruits and more flowers. The best part of this celebrations is that we can delay the festival until midnight, so I was in no hurry. After sorting out our dinners, I arranged the neivadyam plate with little cups of butter, milk and curd. We made a simple mixture of aval, vellam(jaggery) and pottu kadalai and offered it all to the lord along with some fruits. The daddy was back and he joined us in our celebration. And thus ended janmastami this year. Aditi still walks carefully around the padams, and instructs us not to stamp on them.
A part of me still thinks I should have made something sweet for little Krishna, but I think i'll make up for it by making something nice for Ganesh Chathurthi, especially since it falls on a weekend.
But the Lord had other plans. I got up early that morning and Aditi woke up with me, so we finished all our morning chores well in time and had lots more time on our hand. Rather than settling with her book on the couch, I decided to do the padams with the freshly prepared dosa batter from the previous night. Drew a simple kolam outside and little padams all the way upto the pooja shelf. Aditi helped me by walking carefully around the little padams.She was fascinated by them to say the least. More time left, so I decided to do up the pooja shelf. A freshly blossomed tulip was plucked and offered to the little krishna statues. A little prayer was said and a bhajan sung and we left for our repsective locations to spend the day. On our way back, I picked some fruits and more flowers. The best part of this celebrations is that we can delay the festival until midnight, so I was in no hurry. After sorting out our dinners, I arranged the neivadyam plate with little cups of butter, milk and curd. We made a simple mixture of aval, vellam(jaggery) and pottu kadalai and offered it all to the lord along with some fruits. The daddy was back and he joined us in our celebration. And thus ended janmastami this year. Aditi still walks carefully around the padams, and instructs us not to stamp on them.
A part of me still thinks I should have made something sweet for little Krishna, but I think i'll make up for it by making something nice for Ganesh Chathurthi, especially since it falls on a weekend.
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