Sahaana's first ever picnic

Red cap, red tee-shirt and jeans clad, Sahaana went off on her first ever picnic today! Her schoold has organised a field trip for their class and guess where are they off to? Pure and Natural, a fruits & vegetables store in the city that stocks some of the best quality stuff. Ever since we heard she has to go on a field trip, I have been utterly excited as any mother would be on her kid's first picnic.

Last night, after a serious hunt in the house, we realised we only have adult-type PET bottles. So I had to send Sriram out on the daunting task of fetching a water-bottle for the kiddo's picnic. Daunting, only becasue it was already 9 pm and most shops in our locality would have closed by then. He did manage to return with a bottle, nothing great in design, quality or aesthetics, but had some functional value atleast to last this trip.

This morning, I insisted on accompanying Sahaana to school. She refused to get out of the car saying, she didnt want to go to school, she was made ready to go for a picnic! We had to then explain to her that she would go for a picnic with her school teacher and classmates after they finished their breakfast at the school itself. I had to be blamed for creating this over-hype about her picnic and talking to her all evening about what they would do at a picnic. It must have been such an anti-climax for the little one to discover all that in the morning!

Anyways, I hope she has great fun and comes back with some interesting experiences. Love you pattani!!!

Remembering Nassir Hussain

Sahaana alike her cousins is very susceptible to motion sickness. The moment we get into a car, she begins to get cranky and starts throwing tantrums. The only route she si comfortable with is her way to school and back.

The other day Sriram, Sahaana and I were travelling to Kacheguda to a friend's place for dinner. On the way, we had to pick up groceries from a store in Monda Market. The whole journey lasted for close to two hours, including the time we spent navigating through the narrow streets of Secunderabad, picking up the stuff and finally settling the bills. Sahaana, was obviously very irked by the whole experience and that was making the two of us very nervous as well. We feared that by the time we would reach our friend's place, she would have got into her most anti-social moods.

So, to keep her engaged and in a reasonably cheerful way, I started doing something I would have never imagined to. I started singing absolutely bizarre songs involving family members of our friends and relatives. The tune goes like the " I hear thunder'/ "are you sleeping"...and the lyrics are like this....
Karthik Uncle, Karthink Uncle,
Madhavi Aunty, Madhavi Aunty,
Yodhin & Gaurang,
Yodhin & Gauran,
Make a Family, They Make a Family

Another one (this is Sahaan's favourite)
Nithu athai Nithu Athai
Natraj Athimber Natraj Athimber
Samhita & Shivani; Samhita & shivani
Make a Family, They Make a Family

Sahaana just took to this instantly and that definitley was a saving grace for the day. We kept singing this for the rest of our journey and ensured the young lady behaved herself.

Since that night, she insists on singing this every now and then and has also managed to induct the rest of the family members. Now we have the entire family tree woven into this tune...this way, she now remembers all the members of a particular family...ain't that cool?

We have a song for our own family, which goes like this....
Appa Cheeaam (thats how Sahaana addresses Sriram) Appa Cheeaam
Amma Chowmya Amma Chowmya
Tatha Patti Sahaana Tatha Patti Sahaana
Make a Family, They make a family!

Very 'Yaadon Ki Baarat'ish!!

Will need to think of something more creative to accommodate the soon-to-arrive new member into the song. Any ideas??

Rang De Basanti

These days after I get back home from work, I spend atleast about 30-40 minutes drawing, sketching and colouring with my kid. It is a new-found passion for the two of us. And needless to say, we thoroughly enjoy this activity, so much so that I have begun to believe that crayons is the best thing to have happened to kids after the diapers!

Sahaana brings up one of her story books every evening and I try (that word has a lot more weightage than it seems to) and sketch the characters from the book, and the little one then starts colouring them. This way she gets to learn the objects/ characters that are being drawn and identify the colours as well.

However my concern here is only about wasting so much paper everyday. I wish there was a more prudent way of having fun with colours. Sriram and I are planning to get all the used sheets of paper from our respective offices and recycle them in our own 'colurful' way! That will allow us to refrain from any regret.

I tried drawing using the slate and chalk, but it is half not as much fun as the freedom of using the crayons. I am just waiting for the day when Sahaana is old enough to play with water colours....hmm, that will be fun! And then we will progress to vegetable dyeing, thread painting, etc.

Content missing

I was aghast surfing through the various news channels a couple of days back. All that every TV channel was 'exclusively' covering was the Racism Story, post the so called debacle at the Big Brother Show. There were extensive panel discussions about how UK and the rest of the West need to get their act together about respecting the Non-Whites. I didnt watch the episodes where Shilpa was apparently victimised, but from what I read, I gathered, it was not a big deal, as it is made out to be.

Sometime back, they were busy covering the semi-pilgrimage trips of Mr & Mrs Rai, right after the wedding announcement. Every TV channel worth its salt spent crores of worth airtime on talking about the couple's temple visits, asking them annoying questions like, "Aapko kaisa lag raha hai?" so on and so forth. A few days back, it was the sensational story about Abhishek B proposing to Ash in trule filmi style...and not to mention all the airtime dedicated to speculations about their match for almost a year now!

Someone tell me, what is going on? Is there a real dearth of news stories or is this what people want to watch?

Murphy lives with me

Everytime I have an assignment that requires me to travel or stay back late at work, invariably my husband has to go out of station or has career-defining meeting at work. Not just that, my in-laws have also some compelling work on that same day or evening. So it becomes a tumultous task of assigning who will baby-sit Sahaana.

It is probably the umpteenth time today that I will have to excuse myself from joining the rest of the team, this time, for an off-site planned at city outskirts for the weekend. What else, my advanced pregnancy as an excuse! Sriram is in Bombay (havent got myself to call it Mumbai yet) and will be back only on Sunday morning. My in-laws are already exhausted with the additional chores of picking and dropping Sahaana to her play-school, the last couple of days. And to add to this, Sahaana has started clinging on to me in the nights, perhaps an insecurity phase with the birth of the new baby just a couple of months away now!

Even if I make it to ICRISAT on Saturday (will send Sahaana to her play school for a couple of hours), I will have to return the same evening...wonder how will I manage the transport? And may have to go in for a few hours on Sunday, afterall they are going to determine our KPIs for the year. I only pray Sriram manages to come early that day and takes over from my ILs.

I have another 10 days to go only before I go on my maternity leave. I will be working from home in Feb, but atleast wont be required at events from then on. And then I am off to my Mama's place to Bombay..hey hey!!

"She's brilliant"

That's the verdict from Monica Ma'm- Sahaana's teacher at her play-school cum day care centre about her. And am I elated about that? Well, when my MIL told me about it during lunch today, I tried to act very composed and reacted by just raising my brow, suggesting, "Really? That's good for the kid." Its been roughly four hours since I had that conversation with my MIL and I still cant get over it. Every now and then I am hit by these sudden pangs of pride - she is all of 31 months, mind you!

Sriram is travelling and is in the midst of back-to-back interviews, so guess, I shall have to wait until evening to break the news. Am so sure he will go ecstatic and wouldnt mind over reacting when he hears that ..." I always knew it"- type response!

When we decided to have our baby, there were a lot of things we decided we wouldnt do alike the stereotypical parents...for eg. "Baby, please sing 'Twinkle twinkle' for Uncle Ajay" or "kanna, show that drawing you made to Didi" or worse still "Will you show Aunt Pooja the dance you learnt at school?" so on and so forth, drawing lessons from our own lives where we have been bored to death by the over enthusiasm of some parents! But now look at me, I want to stand tall and tell the whole world what Sahaana's teacher thinks of her. So, here's my first post about the grand achievements of my 'Pattani' (green peas in Tamil ). At least I leave you with an option of just ignoring this post, that ways, I am not imposing my emotions. Did I hear you say, "Cheap"? :-)