Days 351 - 355: From Good to Awesome!

17 - 21 December, 2013

In my last post, I had written about how the days have gone from being pretty bad to pretty good. Now in the last few days, I can safely say that the days have gone from pretty good to pretty awesome! Several awesome things have been happening:

1) The dub for Aravindum Aarumughamum is finally complete! It took staying up until 6:30 on friday night/saturday morning to get this done, but thanks to a cup of exceptionally good black coffee and a lot of humour and wit from the team even that late into the night, we managed to get through it. It took me another late night to complete the entire sync and edit of the dub but then... soon enough, we were done! And it felt awesome!

2) We, the culture team at work that organized the Christmas party, had a really nice celebratory lunch at the Ku De Ta restaurant in Marina Bay Sands. This was a gift given to us by the boss, for the good work ! The lovely atmosphere with the cool, breezy weather, the gorgeous views, the delicios Japanese bento set that ordered, as well as the fun conversation that flowed throughout, all made it a really nice experience.

3) I had  been pretty much stuck with the ideas for episodes of the Malayalam sitcom that I had started to write, but now I have a new thread in my mind. I haven't yet written it down, but this is already a great start!

4) I started to pack for the last and final trip of the year - back to India!

5) I finally started to feel that December is here! Work was easing off, mainly because nobody is around to not let it ease off; The work on the film at my end was finally pretty much done, I was beginning to think about the holiday finally (and panicking about the packing, if I may add) and I even managed to catch a Bollywood film, Dhoom 3, in the theatre. I was visiting the cinemas after three whole months... I don't think that kinda gap has happened ever before, but that's how busy it has been! It was great to be back... and I think I enjoyed the film more than anyone else. Sure, it has a mindblowing list of flaws, but just watching it for the performance of Aamir Khan and production design, was good enough for me.

6) I had two really good yoga classes!

7) Thanks to Youtube, I am still receiving messages from strangers on Mausams,even though the film is almost three years old now. Especially when I feel like I am in a rut with the dubbing or some other issue with the film, one such message quickly pulls me out and up and I feel like this is all worth it! Everytime this happens, I feel so thankful!

Nett, am an awesomely happy person! 

Days 329 - 337: Work, Edits, Teams, Late Night Decorations, Parties, Farewells and 200,000!

26 November - 4 December, 2013

I am having such a crazy time at work, it is not funny. Even as I write this am waiting for my next call to start - at 12:30 in the night! And it has been this way for a while... I hardly get time even to eat at work and only when am faint with hunger do I realize that I should be taking a break. But things are not bad, at least in hindsight. At least I feel like there is some progress there, which is always a good thing. But I can safely say that real happiness is coming from elsewhere. Here are some highlights from the last few days.

1) Except for half of 1 scene (there are 5 in total), the edit of Aravindum Aarumugham is completely locked (after my editor spending hours at it when I am at work and both of us reviewing it every night until late - and I mean like 5am even!). This is great progress and am very excited about how it has turned out. It even makes me happy in spite of the fact that I have to completely reshoot half a scene (ugh!). I felt pretty bummed out when I realized this, but what the heck. At least I have the other 4.5 scenes that am extremely thrilled about!

2) After completing the edit, I called over the team - mainly the two lead guys, and we watched it together. It was a real fun experience - to watch them watch themselves on screen, evaluating their performances and finally, thankfully, ending the day with fully beaming faces. I was over the moon that day, thanks to my little film that has come so well until now. There is still a ton of work to go - reshoot, re-edit, sound design, music, dub, subtitles, etc. But so far so good!

3) I managed to squeeze in a couple of parties into my suffocating schedule. One was a good friend's daughter's birthday party which was held in an indoor play area. It was my little one's first time to such a place and she was visibly excited. She couldn't get on most of the games since she was too young for them, but she did manage to sit down and drown herself in a ball pit. Initially she was a bit terrified to get into it but before we knew it, there she was... lying down surrounded by hundreds of balls with only her head peeping through! The party was also fun because I could meet a few mutual friends and have quick catch ups. Some of them commented that they are still reading this blog - God bless them for that - and it gave me enough encouragement to continue writing in spite of wanting to do nothing but sleep, really.

4) Another party was the Christmas party at work, which my good self had the opportunity to organize (yes, am turning into a chronic office party/event organizer!). This was quite a small but cozy affair held in a cafe in the basement of the Singapore Management University. We took over the whole cafe and had a lovely event involving tart making contest, mulled wine demonstration (I didn't even know there was something called mulled wine - it is something like masala chai - basically spiced wine with a few fruits in there and of course, I very imaginatively called it masala wine...also, it tastes awesome!), live music (thanks to a few talented colleagues), make-your-own-santa contest, playing with a hoola hoop that happened to come along as part of a secret santa gift exchange and some really good food! The whole event was put together with just five days notice, and I was quite happy with how it turned out. In appreciation of the work, the boss gave me and the team vouchers to go for a celebratory lunch at Kudeta. Not bad at all!

5) The Christmas party was preceded with a night of decking up the office with Christmas decor. We had streamers, bobbles, candy canes, little notes reminding everyone of the upcoming party, and even a fully decked up Christmas tree! It was a lot of work but I had an enthusiastic team and we definitely had immense fun!

6) After the edit was locked, my editor cum cinematographer finally took his leave and returned to his home in India. But we made the most of the last couple of days with "farewell dinners" at two of my favourite places - E-Sarn for Thai cuisine and Ichiban Boshi for Japanese cuisine. He is a great foodie as well and appreciated the food as much as I did. I wouldn't have been able to complete my film without the tremendous help from him and am so thankful for that. Until the next project!

7) I had taken quite a long break from exercising thanks to the shoot and editing. But am happy to report that as soon as the edit was locked, I got back to it. Feeling good!

8) I must also add that I am having work until ridiculous times at night. 1am on one day. 2am on another. And to be in office latest by 8:30am the next day. So what is good about that, you may ask. Well, the fact that I am actually going strong in spite of it. And am proud of that (OK, I might be turning into a bit of a workaholic, but that's the only way to get through this phase right now). This too shall pass.

9) And last but not the least, Inganeyum Oru Katha has crossed 200,000 views on Youtube! Who would have thought!

Tough days, but like I said, so far so good.

Days 303 - 316: 14 Interesting Days!

31 October - 13 November

Today is November 13th. Which means I have not written any post for 2 whole weeks! What a bummer.

But in my defense, it has been a rather tough two weeks. As soon as we got back from Kashmir, I caught the flu and the husband caught the stomach flu. Just when we recovered, the little one caught the stomach flu. And just when she recovered, I caught the stomach flu! Yeah, it was messy. And I was completely spent after about 12 days of this sickness extravaganza.

But then beautiful things still do happen. Let me list out 14 good things over the past 14 days, just as a means of compensation.

1) Diwali - I was pretty sick during Diwali, so we weren't planning to do anything special at our place. But thanks to some encouragement and help from our helper, we ended up celebrating Diwali in style! All of us got dressed up, lit the lamps placed around the house, did some puja, ate sweets, took pictures and felt pretty good. Especially now that we have the little one, I really want to celebrate every festival, and am glad that we had our own small, beautiful celebration! We also attended Diwali parties at my brother in law's and a friends's places - complete with cards and other games, great food, lights and sparklers. Nett, it became a pretty good Diwali!

2) Winnings - Diwali became even more awesome because, for a change, I actually won a few rounds of Bingo (also called Tambola/Housie) and Teen Patti (a card game). My winnings are of the range of $6 - $15 only but as we all know,  it is about the experience of winning than the amount. I usually have terrible luck when it comes to these games and it felt great to be on the other side!

3) Hubby's office - The hubby, who is working in a startup that he has co-founded, had recently expanded his office. I had not been to the new office and just got an opportunity to take a look when we went there to perform a small Diwali puja. I fell in love with the walls in the brand colours, the bean bags scattered around, the ergonomic chairs and the excellent chococino from their espresso machine! It was all pretty awesome! His partner and family were also present and we had a short but nice time together, while the kids...they have a boy and we had taken our little one along as well.... had a pretty merry time themselves. It was fun!

4) Aravindum Aarumughamum team comes together - We were supposed to shoot the film end of this month but one of the lead actor's dad fell ill and he had to rush back to India. I decided to postpone the shoot but in a heartening turn of events, was asked not to do so, by the team including this particular actor. They encouraged me stick to the plan and committed to make the most of the time that we have, instead of postponing indefinitely. His  dad is better now and  we are sticking to the original schedule. We are no longer as prepared as we should have been by now, had things gone according to plan, but just the fact that the team believes in the project and wants to see it through, makes me super happy!

5) Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - She is my most recent literary discovery. I am always on the lookout for interesting books by Indian authors and came across a collection of her short stories and man, she is awesome! Turned out that she is not an Indian but only married to one, yet her stories set in India give incredible perspective on the way of life there and she has managed to capture so many of the nuances typical of the country! I am definitely going to look out for more of her works, but for now, thoroughly enjoying myself reading her "East into Upper East: Plain Tales from New York & New Delhi"!

6) Little one's final birthday celebration for the year! - Yes, her birthday celebrations are still continuing! We didn't really get to celebrate the event with our friends here in Singapore and hence, now that we are back from Kashmir, we decided to give them a "treat", Indian style. Even though the original plan was to treat them for brunch somewhere outside, our helper insisted that she wants to cook for the event and got me to invite everyone over! It was a rather nice gesture by her and I was pretty touched. She made Pulav rice, Gobi Kheema, Kerala style chicken curry, Aloo 65 and Baked yogurt! Everyone came over, showered the little one with gifts - including a gigantic soft duck that is now occupying half my living room, had lunch, sang "happy birthday" as we cut a really cute cake that I ordered last minute, played games and made it all very merry and happy. Thus, her birthday celebrations for the year came to an end with this last round of small, beautiful gathering! Wishing her many, many, many more!

7) Kitchen & Cooking - Cooking is a rather rare activity for me. But for the little one's birthday celebration, when the helper said that she would like to cook for everyone, I decided that I need to help out as well. So after a long hiatus, I was back in the kitchen and was given the task of making baked yogurt dessert. And I enjoyed that - figuring out the mix, decorating with different types of jams, packing it all up in tiny serving cups for refrigeration and finally serving them all with relish, all under her able supervision, of course. Post baked yogurt, I even grated a ton of cauliflower for the gobi kheema, which made me feel like a pro! Totally awesome!

8) A good cause - I managed to raise some funds for a family back in my hometown. The husband is suffering from kidney failure and requires transplant and the wife is the donor. This puts them in a pretty tough situation with both being out of job, with three kids and hefty bills to pay and debts to clear off. When my mom told me about this, I did my best to spread the word and collect some funds to help them. I guess one is supposed to do these things selflessly but I would be lying if I say that it didn't make me feel good. Because, it did.

9) Kashmir blogs - Even though I was sick, I did manage to write the blogs on the Kashmir travel in detail. Initially I was planning to put a couple of pictures and get done with it, but then decided against it. That gorgeous place deserves every bit of writing about it and am glad I took that trouble. Now all the details could be forever remembered. Also, after reading the blog, quite a number of people said they will be planning trips to Kashmir and that makes me happy, because the locals thrive on tourism and due to the tensions in the region, are in quite a bad situation. So the more tourists, the better for them!

10) Yoga record - Including what I managed over the last couple of days, I have now done 60 days of yoga this year, which is kind of a personal record for me! The previous highest was 59 in 2011. I know 60 doesn't sound like a lot but each yoga class takes 3 hours including commute, so am glad I managed so much.

11) Exercise record - This also brings the total number of days I exercised this year to a grand total of 150 - 50% more than my target and 20% more than my highest annual number ever! I will do another check at the end of Dec, but I already feel pretty good about this.

12) Lost a kilo - am not sure whether it is the effect of the exercise or just the sickness, but looks like I have dropped a kilo. Even though am no longer too hung about the extra weight am retaining post pregnancy, it felt good when the scale showed an unexpected drop. Let's see how long this will be maintained!

13) Little one's tricks - The little one is becoming quite an entertaining person to watch every day. She goes into these melodramatic acting sequences - it is like watching a Tamil movie from the 70s. She screams, stretches, quivers, pops her eyes, rolls over, sticks her tongue out and end it all with her toothless grin. She has also now figured out how to use the iPhone and iPad - switching the main button, swiping it on, glancing through the pictures, playing games and so on. I never thought that it would be this fascinating to watch kids on their discovery journey. She also imitates every single thing - if I "shush" her, she does the same to me. If I talk on the phone, she pretends to talk on the phone. If I pretend to go into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, she will go into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. What fun! Plus her first words are out - "amma", "ta ta", "nah".

14) Transcendental Meditation - And last but not the least I have discovered transcendental meditation. This simple but rather fulfilling method has really got me hooked! Hoping that it would turn into a regular practice now.

And with that - I conclude on the last 14 days. I was sick through most of it, but it definitely wasn't bad at all. Thank God for that!

Day 301: Shankaracharya Temple, Shalimar Bhagh, Kashmiri Wazwan & Birthday Celebrations!

The little one turns 1 tomorrow, on the 30th. But given that we would all be travelling back to our respective places tomorrow, we had planned to celebrate her birthday today, as a way of ushering it in.

So early in the morning, she got dressed in her traditional silk skirt and blouse from Kerala, complete with bangles, bindi and hairband, all courtesy of my parents. After sufficient fussing over her new makeover and going overboard with the phototaking, we treated ourselves to the lavish breakfast at Taj Vivanta. They had everything from North Indian to South Indian to Continental Cuisine and we stuffed ourselves silly. 

Then we set off to explore Srinagar, our first stop being the Sri Shankaracharya temple situated on top of a hill. The car dropped us at the parking lot at the top but then it required climbing another 275 steps or so to reach the shrine on top. That wasn't easy at all but well worth the trouble! The temple was quaint and peaceful and offered majestic views all around. It was breathtaking and I felt an overhwelming sense of satisfaction being there. I felt like it was the perfect start to my little one's brand new year on planet earth!

After our prayers and the taxing climb back down, we were off to our next stop, the Mughal Gardens or Shalimar Bhagh. Spread across a huge area, the garden was a visual pleasure. I loved looking at all the flowers and trees, of various colours, shapes, sizes, and also the different architectural structures they had along the way. The only downside was that all the fountains were under maintenance and hence not functioning. That was a real pity because I think they would have given the place a whole different charm. 

Soon we found ourselves shopping away in the market right outside the garden. I must add here that our luggage overflowed by the time we were on our way back to Singapore - the shopping was simply irresistible! They had such gorgeous stuff - be it clothes or accessories or handicrafts - and that too at such unbelievably cheap prices that it was hard to control ourselves. 

After the morning's outing, we felt a desire to have typical Kashmiri lunch and we went in search of a restaurant called Mughal Durbar, which was recommended for its authentic Kashmiri cuisine. There all we did was ask to be served "something Kashmiri" and they suggested to try the Wazwan - the Kashmiri version of a "thaali" or a spread of different dishes served with rice. The Wazwan came with a special type of rice and several, and I mean SEVERAL, types of mutton and chicken. And all of them were so awesome! I don't think I have consumed so much meat in one go ever before, it was insane! 

The Wazwan made us all heavy and sleepy, so we decided that we will spend the rest of the day back in the hotel. After all, the hotel itself offered quite a bit to explore and look at. Back in the hotel, I attempted a bit of packing in preparation for tomorrow and then all of us spent the entire evening walking around its grounds, taking pictures and enjoying a cup of masala chai each, as we watched the sun go down beyond the Dal lake and the mountains. 

The lake looked absolutely still with not a ripple disturbing its serenity, the mountains were covered in a veil of mist, and the sun's rays changed the landscape from yellow to deep orange to crimson hues, as it went down the horizon. The beauty was surreal. The peace felt within was unforgettable. I am in love with this place. 

Then the official 1st birthday celebrations began. First we had cocktails in the bar at the hotel. Rather, the rest of them had cocktails in the bar while I watched over the little one who readily fell asleep in the room before we could step out. Once she was up after her nap, we too joined the rest of them at the bar. And by "joining them", I mean that I ran with the little one, all bundled up in layers and layers, through the dark and in the super cold, through the gardens of the hotel, up until the bar. That itself was an amazing experience. She and I both enjoyed it thoroughly! 

Once I had my share of the cocktail party, we proceeded to the Chinese restaurant at the hotel, for the rest of the celebrations. I had ordered a cake for the little one and once that came by, all of us sung her her "Happy Birthday" song, much to her amusement, and then the hubby and I blew the candles on her behalf and let her eat some cake, much to her delight! Then the grandparents gave her cake and my mom-in-law made her wear a tiny little gold ring. Apparently she herself had worn that ring when she was this young... how cute! Then she and my dad-in-law recited a poem each that they wrote for the little one, which she, like a good girl, listened to intently. Overall, it was a small, beautiful ceremony, just the way I had wanted it to be! 

After the lovely celebration and a good Indian Chinese dinner, we got back to our rooms and found a nice surprise awaiting the little one - a room full of balloons, courtesy the Taj Vivanta! It was wonderful! 

Thus my little one turned a little less little, amidst a lot of love from her beautiful family, in one of the most beautiful places on the planet! It was perfect! 

Day 291: The 2-Month Late Birthday Celebration!

Yes, the hubby and I share our birthday and it was two months ago. But we celebrated it with our gang of friends here in Singapore today.

This is what happened.

Over some random conversation, I asked the gang whatever happened to our birthday gifts this year, because we didn't receive any. So they promptly reminded me that our birthday treat was still due, and no treat means no gifts. OK fair enough. We were in Europe during our birthday and since then there was never a good time when everyone in the gang was present for a treat, so it was indeed due.

Thus, this Friday, we gave our birthday treat to the gang at our new favourite place Pind Balluchi. And it was a real fun celebration because everyone from the gang, kept up with the occassion, and wished us "Happy Birthday! And watching my excitement whenever someone did that, even the waiters at Pind Balluchi wished me when we were leaving. I felt like a school girl, in school on her birthday, wearing non uniform "colour dress" as we used to call it, distributing sweets to fellow classmates. It felt awesome!

Post the dinner and one round of drinks, we made our way out of Pind Balluchi to find another place to hang out for the rest of the evening. Just as we stepped out in search of the next hangout, there was a thundering noise. We realized that it was the rain slapping down hard on the high ceilings that covered the paths within Clarke Quay. There was a sudden gust of wind and it turned pretty chilly. I loved it! It was lovely to walk around listening to percussion above, enjoying the cool weather and the breeze, and occasionally coming in the way of the rain that gets blown into the covered paths. I felt like it was the perfect "birthday" celebration!

After walking around for a while, we found no other place in the whole of Clarke Quay that offered a quiet spot serving drinks, so we went back to Pind Balluchi. Yup! So we were there two times in a single evening and over a bottle of Sula wine, had a nice long conversation, well past midnight! I hardly stay that late out anymore because of the little one. So this was a nice change and the perfect end to a tough week at work.

I hit the bed a very happy person.

Days 216 - 222: Birthdays, Neighbourhood Cafes, Discoveries and Princess Parties!

When I started out writing this blog, I had put up a "reasonable" target of writing at least one entry a week. I thought that with my multiple roles as mother, wife, brand manager, health conscious human being etc., I wouldn't be able to achieve anything more. But truth be told, I had actually expected myself to deliver far better on the frequency, given my tendency of wanting to over-deliver on targets. And I had done reasonably well so far too - this is my 128th entry for the year, it seems! That's definitely a lot better than a weekly entry!

But recently, I have been struggling to keep up. There have been a lot of combined entries vs. daily ones, and as of today, I think I have hit rock bottom on frequency with this post - which is following the previous one after exactly 7 days!

So why am I writing such utterly inane statistics here?

Because it helps to describe the state of my life very well. Yup, my life's gone crazy busy, mostly due to work.

But that's fine. Good news is that there has been something to smile about (rather widely most often), almost every day!

So here are the highlights from the last 7 days...!

a) As a Malayali, I get to celebrate two birthdays every year. One according to the universal English calendar (which is coming up this week), and another according to the Malayalam calendar (which is a lunar calendar, as opposed to the solar English calendar). The Malayalam birthday, thus, doesn't fall on specific date every year but keeps changing by +/-15 days or so every year. Long story short, it was my Malayalam birthday on Sunday and unlike previous years when I mostly forgot or ignored it, this year I didn't. All thanks to my mom who made quite a big deal out of it with early morning prayers and a celebration involving semiya payasam (dessert made of vermicelli, milk and raisins)! It was a small celebration, but indeed a beautiful one!

b) Ever since we shifted to our current place in Bishan in 2009, there was only one flaw that we could find in our otherwise perfect and extremely convenient neighbourhood. The absence of a Starbucks outlet! There's been countless times when the hubby and I would want a cup of our favourite Chai Tea Latte but there is no Starbucks in the vicinity. If I had a penny for the number of times I said, "I love Bishan... but really wish there was a Starbucks here", I would be pretty darn rich by now. Good news is, it is true that if you really want something with all your heart, the universe does conjure it up for you! Yes, we have our own neighbourhood Starbucks now, within just a few minutes walk, and we - i.e, the hubby, the little one and I, made our first trip there! Woot!! Over a cup of Chai Tea Latte, I thanked Gods and the Starbucks management for making Bishan perfect, finally!

c) It was a 4-day long weekend in Singapore thanks to the National day and Eid holidays and I spent the majority of it on packing for our upcoming trip. I had already written up a 150-item long list, bulk of it being the little one's necessary items. The thought of packing all these have been daunting me for the longest time, but I am proud to say that after several hours of non-stop, focused effort, it is almost all done now! We are pretty much ready for our first long vacation together!

d) I made two new discoveries - First was the Lantern Bar at the Fullerton Bay Hotel, which had a fantastic view and a great ambience. I have to say that the service left much to be desired, but it is definitely worth going there for the view and ambience! The second one was "Blue Ginger" at Tanjong Pagar. I had been here once several years ago, so this was more of a rediscovery. They serve Peranakan cuisine and I particularly loved their Blue Ginger Chicken.

e)  There were also a couple of fun catch ups with friends. A school friend of the hubby had come from India on a short visit and it was lovely to meet him. And we also met up with the usual gang over a very late night drinks session - it was almost like a farewell session because we would be meeting each other only next month now, thanks to everyone's travel plans.

g) Last but not the least, the little one went for her first "princess" party - which was the theme of the birthday party of a friend's five year old girl. The parents had done a pretty amazing job of bringing the theme to life - what with princess themed cakes, balloons, wands, crowns, plates, cups, napkins, and even a storyteller in full princess costume with a "prince" in tow. Our little one, even though had no idea of the theme or the stories or the games, was clearly fascinated by the proceedings. She was so excited that she showed absolutely no signs of crankiness for a span of two whole hours! I guess this is just the beginning of several such parties to follow, and while it makes my head reel to think that I will have to organize such events in the future, as far as the little one is concerned, it was a great beginning for sure!

Now looking forward to our holiday next week! 

Day 105: Thus the Head was Shaved!

Today, a head was shaved... not mine (am not that adventurous yet), but the little' one's! 

It's a very common practice in India to shave the heads of babies. The belief is that with this, the baby hair will be removed once and for all, to be replaced with better, stronger, blacker hair. Now this event, that of getting the baby's head shaved, usually doesn't mean just taking a walk up to the salon and getting it snipped. It is a “ceremony”. In Kerala, where I come from, it means travelling hundreds of kilometers  and going to one of those big temples like Thirupathi or Pazhani that specializes in head-shaving ceremonies. In Kanpur, where the hubby comes from, this means having a big function, with friends and neighbours pouring in, a feast organized and the ceremony performed at home. In other words, in both worlds, it’s pretty much a big deal and requires weeks, if not months, of planning.

In our case, the planning lasted for about 15 minutes this morning. It all started with a conversation with the hubby, over chat, when both of us were in our respective offices. It started with a mere “We gotta do mundan (the Hindi word for the head shaving)” to “We might as well do it sooner than later” to “ We might as well do it today because parents (i.e. my mom and the hubby’s dad) are in town”. That’s it. Before we really even realized it ourselves, the local temple authorities were informed, the barber was booked, the parents were informed, the little one was ready and we were on our way to the temple, the venue of the mundan.

After a short puja (prayer) led by the priest, the barber started to shave off the little one’s head. She was seated on the hubby’s lap, who in turn clung to her with all his might, making sure she kept still. It’s no fun watching a blade on the head of your child and both of us were nervous. I hid my nervousness behind my camera, clicking pictures incessantly.

The barber did the shaving in three phases, with short breaks in between. The little one kept still, seemingly enjoying the process in the first phase but wailed her lungs out during the second and third phases. But everytime there was a break, she would switch to her wide mouthed, toothless grin, as if she is oblivious of what just happened and in turn making me feel a lot less nervous.  

Within minutes, those tiny little strands, even the ones that she used pull with all her might in her waves of anger, were all gone. (Yes, the girl has a temper and during fits of rage, she used to love pulling her own hair from the back of her head).

As I later (very funnily) proclaimed on Facebook, “Eka became Egg-a”!

Post the mundan ceremony,  all of us, including my brother and sister-in-law as well as her brother who had all arrived by then, went to Kailas Parbat for “post-mudan party” as the hubby called it. There we stuffed ourselves with a variety of chaat topped with a serving of their lovely cutting chai, while the little one figured that she can no longer pull her own hair. As she grasped for a handful of hair, all she got was air, bringing a priceless look of confusion on her face.

Thus the Mundan came to an end. Quickly, Happily, Beautifully!

Day 86: A Different Holi!

I have hardly celebrated Holi in the past. My one and only proper celebration was a few years ago at the hubby's place in Kanpur. Then I played it the way it was meant to be played and had a ball. But we don't really celebrate it here in Singapore except for some prayers at home and applying a little bit of colour on each other.

This year, it was the little one's first Holi and it started off with... well... a doctor's appointment to get her vaccination. So early in the morning the three of us set off to the doctor's. After the brief unpleasantness during the injection, she was back to her normal self....so she and I, together with our helper Lakshmi (who, by the way, is fantastic and deserves a few posts dedicated to her!), set off to meet Mata Amritanandamayi who is in town. After waiting for 3.5 hours, we managed to get a darshan (a meeting) with her. The hubby too, who had left for his office, also managed to reach just in time for darshan. Thus, we managed to get the blessings of our spiritual guru on the day of Holi, which was fantastic.

Back at home, we had a small prayer, and put a little bit of colour on each other, as well as on the little one.


So yes, it was a different kinda Holi celebration, beautiful nevertheless!