Neelu's corner

Happy New year !

2011-12-28T20:59:00.000-08:00

I am enjoying the last leg of this year. Its 8 in the night and I am in bed, my mind not overburdened with needs of tomorrow. Few days ago a friend sent me a video, a spiritual talk by someone, and it affected me deeply. Sometimes philosophy, thoughts and truth that you have known all your life, in simple or complex ways, can hit you unexpectedly and my guess is, it is because it caters to your current state of mind. The gist of the talk was about the fears we live in and how they control us to an extent that we ignore to live our life and we don't want to die either. How our mind is controlled either by memories of past or fears of future, both essentially imagination, stifling our energy to focus on reality of today. We are either stuck with pains and pleasures of past or picturing the plight ,predicament and panic of times which are yet to come. Our mind is conjecturing non-existential and that's the way to define insanity. As my friend shared this video and vowed not to live in regrets and angers of past and anxiety of future, I realize how important it is for all of us. Surely there will be many slips and slides in pursuing this but I am sure it would have the highest rewards. Its not philosophy, its the most ultimate pragmatic approach. Give today your best and that would take care of tomorrow, and if it does not , you would have at-least one less regret in your list for not trying and trying my friend is living. With this I put behind the past year and embrace the new year with all it has to offer. Happy New Year !

Picture confusion

2011-12-28T18:00:00.000-08:00

My dear friend recently sent pictures of her daughter's birthday party. Neev and I were looking at them together. One of the pictures were not rotated properly so here is what he asked me , "why are they eating pizza upside down"?

The computer effect ?

2011-12-11T19:43:00.001-08:00

Scene : Shopping trip in Costco and since Neev is too big to sit on the cart seat , he is happily sitting inside it.

Me : Neev, I need space in the cart to put our stuff. Can you get down?

Neev : I don't want to download my feet on the ground !

Jagran (an all nighter filled with devotional songs)

2011-08-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

This past Friday our temple organized 'Jagran'. Its a night where devotional songs are sung and usually with professional singers and orchestra ! If you grew up in India, you probably have heard about 'Narendra Singh Chanchal' . He is probably the most popular 'Jagran' singer in India and I was very interested in attending the night.

Dinner was served and red bandannas were distributed . We tied them to our foreheads, sunk in the chairs and listened to the orchestra music. While we waited for Chanchal to arrive, my thoughts raced back in time. Personally its always been hard for me to connect spiritually to Jagran. No matter what they say and convey in the words but if they are tuned on popular Bollywood numbers, they become just that - songs and nothing more ! In my head 'Mehendi laga ke rakhna' tune is only going to bring back memories of a dark cinema hall, sitting hand in hand with my boyfriend (now husband) and romantically imagining ourselves as hero and heroine of DDLJ (Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge) , no matter how much you turn around the lyrics to "palkein bicha ke rakhna , daman phaila ke rakhna, ayenge prabhu ji , ye ankhe khuli hi rakhna''. Its not going to evoke anything close to term devotional to me - period !

I grew up in a town where people not only organized 'Jagran' in their homes but shared their devotion through loudspeakers for the entire neighborhood. You could not keep that music out even by shutting the windows, drawing curtains and hanging 20 more sheets on top of that. It did not matter if students needed to concentrate for board exams or sick people needed sleep to get better. During 'Navartri' Jagran played out oh so loud everywhere. As a teenager I remember being invited to a couple of my friend's houses for Jagran and I can recall my excitement which had nothing to do with devotion but for a permitted late night stay. I remember us dressing up, helping prepare the ''prasad', spreading sheets on the floor for friends and neighbors , giggling in between and staring at a cute young boy on ''dholak' , embarrasing him and facing the glares of our guardians for this inappropriate behavior'. I don't remember feeling anything other than having pure fun.

Twenty or so years later why was I looking forward to attending Jagran? Two things - First, that the king of Jagran was going to be there and secondly (and more importantly ) that I wanted the kids to experience something that was part of my cultural shape-up. Culture - that's it ! It was more of a cultural thing than religious. I wanted them to be exposed to a way of life that I experienced - wheather I understood it, embraced it , bore no relevance!

No disappointments with Chanchal ! He knows his business well and none of his songs are tuned on any Bollywood music. He made a grand appearance and kicked off the mood. His popularity had pulled a good crowd and into his third song he came down the stage, started hugging people and distributing 'çhunaris''. People started swaying to the songs and started clapping. My kids did not want to join in the dance even after coaxing. I am grateful to them and to my husband who tried to support my enthusiasm by their quiet presence. They did not say in words how ridiculous they felt in those Bandnnas because Mommy told them a hundred times that they looked absolutely adorable. They did not complain when they could not understand a word of song because the loud music masked them. They looked at their excited mother clapping and saying 'Jai Mata Di' and smiled tiredly. In the end , I had to respond to my children's sleep requirements and had to say goodbye to Jagran !

9 things you shouldn't say to your child

2011-07-12T14:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/07/12/dont.say.to.child.p/index.html?&hpt=hp_c2

Talk about Fire !

2011-07-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

We spent this past weekend with our dear friends in their fabulously HUGE backyard picking their home-grown black berries,roasting marsh-mellow on fire and deer-watching from their kitchen window. As the evening darkened, Anurag and I could not stop thinking and saying how much it felt like being in a village. The loud noise of cicada and crickets filled the air with warmth of well-lit fire as we chatted around it.

Fire is mesmerizing! As I sit down to write about it, there are so many things which come to my mind and stir the memory-pot. Good as well as scary ! For as long as I can remember, every fall my family invited a priest in the house on the last day of Navratri to perform ''Havan'' (sacred fire lit with sandal wood and mango tree wood, grown with pots of ghee ,samidha , havan samagri and kapur ). Family and friends were invited and we listened to Priest's mantras and chantings intently and with devotion. My father offered aahuti with every mantra and the flames grew high with each offering. I loved how my home smelled during and after the havan , a peaceful scent spreading calmness and reassurance of good which was supposed to follow afterwards.

In spring, my family has the tradition of burning fire in the wee hours of morning of Holi (a festival of colors popularly celebrated in India) which allured me for different reasons. The night before Holi , Hindi Bollywood songs blared on loud speakers and it may term as 'noise'' to my ears now but back then it was the anticipation of playing with colors in the daytime, dressing up and visiting & welcoming friends in the evening and simply having fun. A big fire was lit on our neighborhood Chowki where teenagers and young people collected tree branches and wood for weeks. My father and brothers would go early in the morning with a big thali (plate) filled with new wheat grain, abir& gulal (green, yellow and red powdered colors) and home-made sweets. They would offer it in the fire , make rounds of it and would come back home with a piece of fired up wood to light up the fire in our aangan (courtyard of our house) which I would arrange the night before in a shape of a pyramid of dry cow-dung cakes . Our family would gather around it and we would make seven rounds while roasting the new wheat grain on it and offering our prayers. My Dadi would put tilak with color on everyone's forehead and we would touch our elders feet to seek their blessings. Holi fire is a symbol of burning all evil and welcoming the good. I still remember sitting around that fire, watching the ambers in the flames, very much enjoying their chattering sounds on those crisp mornings and sipping my chai.

I also remember the chilly winter nights of my childhood when we preferred to keep warm with charcoal lit Angithi than electrical heaters. Eating Revadis and Gajak around Angithi could never compare with the cold experience of an otherwise hot electric heater !

When I moved to Allahabad for College, we did Bonfire in the girls hostel and the only thing it symbolized was youth and fun. Fun it was, as the girls danced the night away in pretty clothes. I don't remember sitting around the fire and being hypnotized by the blazing flames but what I do remember is that the dreams, desires, aspirations and promises glowed and warmed my young heart and that the fire was my spectator !

And then there was the fire around which my husband and I took vows to join two lives into one. Fire was our witness as we united in matrimony. Anurag had a tough time being around it (he is allergic to smoke) and kept sneezing (we have kept his kerchief safe which proved to be his best man during the ceremony :)) but Acharyaji (our priest) had no intentions of either toning down the flames or rushing through the vows:) . You see he's a bit old school :)

Like I said in the beginning, all my fire memoirs are not pleasant ! During one summer vacation ,I remember visiting my Nani's house in the village and a neighbor's thatched roof catching fire. I remember the panicked feeling and loss of the family who lost their roof.

Another year, that loss hit home and in a big way! I can't remember the year but my father's factory got burnt in fire that summer. We did not have phone then, just a message in the afternoon brought the bad news and we were worried sick and scared. And It is for one of the numerous reasons that I say my father is my hero because he came late in the night , looked at the ashen faces of his children, kissed them and said, "don't you worry, I am here and everything is going to be alright'' !

In 2008 we came pretty close to evacuating when infamous California wildfire came dangerously close to Irvine.The sky turned gray and air was unbreathable. Our porch was covered with ashes and soot. We were glued to the TV , our hearts anxious and our bags packed. So many people lost their homes, it was heartbreaking to read and watch their stories.

And then I lost my mother and could not go for her funeral. With sorrow in my heart I could only imagine the pyre of wood on which she was laid to rest , her body engulfed by fire turning into ashes. I imagined her spirit leaving the world but before it did, wrapping me up to say goodbye!

Fire is powerful !

Discussions of a fairy tale and more

2011-07-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

This post is from last year and was in 'draft' . A conversation with Avi -

Avi loves Mythology and a few days ago we talked about Hindu Mythology a bit. This is just an example of how my five and a half year old's thought process works.

While reading Cinderella's fairy tale Avi's questions led to the concept of death, step mother and so on. This is how our conversation unfolded -

Avi - Am I going to have a step mother when you die?

Me - Well I hope I don't die too soon because I want to raise you and take care of you.

Avi- But what if you do?

Me - Umm.....I don't know , may be. You see, all step mothers are not like Cinderella's step mother. Besides If I die when you are all grown up and have a family of your own, Daddy might be very lonely and need company so he may decide to get married again.

Avi (thinking and nodding ) - Well, if the Hindu mythology were to be true , then that thing you told me about will leave your body and come back to earth in some other form (here he is referring to the 'spirit' as 'that thing' because he can't remember the name), so you would still be here.

Me (not sure how to steer the conversation or if I should at all and marveling at his thought process) - Well, I guess in a way but since I will not have the same body, you won't recognize me.

Avi - That's okay, as long as you will be around.

Me (nodding and sighing ) - yeah !

I did not make effort to prolong the conversation with my sweet little child who absorbs things like a sponge.

Weekend of October 2nd 2010

2011-07-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

Saturday - Pumpking painting class in the morning at Jordan Hall Arts center. Avi and Neev painted their pumpkins black , hot-glued bat wings on the sides and sprayed silver sprinkles to create the most adorable looking fat bat pumpkins as Avi called them. Quick bite at Quiznos and then to Bond Park for Fire safety day where Avi did a 'Fire combat course'. Step 1- go on the bouncy slide , step 2 - go through the tunnel, step 3- roll over the inflated big bed, step 4- hammer the wooden log between the wedges, step 5- move the injured guy ( a life size doll), step 6- pick up the hose, step 7- attach it with hydrant, step 8 - blast off the water on the house. Hilarious I tell you watching a 5 years old doing it. A ride in the toy fire truck around the park and then later children's concert by Roger Day. 'Its a no -no to kiss a rhino , muah, muah, muah, muah............ouch was hilarious to sing.

Sunday - A day full of activities on Saturday followed by a lazy day at home with family.

What else comprises of a good weekend?

Avi , Neev and TaeKwonDo

2011-07-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

Boys have joined Taekwondo and I think its worth the fee just to see them in their uniforms. This may be the only place which allows to train kids beginning at age 4 and Neev because of his size looks super cute in his uniform. On their first day, as much as it was entertaining seeing Neev following the instructions, it was tough because he is one of the yougest in the class and had no clue whatsoever. I listened to Ooh....look at him....he is adorable.....he is so young.........comments from other parents and wondered if I put him too early in the class. Three weeks into training and my charmer has picked up the steps pretty well and his front kick is awesome. He is following the instructions and his focus is improving. We'll tackle the form in time.
Avi as usual is taking it seriously and loving it. He is all about testing and getting the white belt and can't wait for August when hopefully he qualifies for it.

Ashwin's visit

2011-06-28T12:37:00.000-07:00

My brother-in-law ( my sister-in-law's husband) was in States for a business trip and spent a weekend with us before returning to India. Avi and Neev instantly bonded with 'Fufa Ji' , thanks to their common interests in sports. Be it Wii or the real field, they had a great time playing together. Upon learning that Ashwin also took piano lessons for sometime, Avi asked him if his teacher gave him any stickers for a job well done. Ashwin said no. Avi further asked if she gave him any high fives for a song well played. Ashwin said no. Frustrated , Avi asked, ''well did she atleast TELL you that you played well ?" We broke out in a laugh which lasted several minutes.

North Myrtle Beach Vacation

2011-06-13T04:56:00.000-07:00

After 4 weeks of OBX fun, it was time to spend another week in North Myrtle beach,South Carolina at the beach house with Anurag's cousin Atul Bhaiya, his wife Lisa, their adorable 3 years old son Jack, Atul Bhaiya's mom and Lisa's family. Weather was warm and breezy, just perfect for getting wet and lounging. The ocean was different here than outerbanks. Waves were mellow and beach was sloping, making it easy for kids to go much further into water without getting the feeling of being in deep. Around noon the water pushed its way into some areas of the beach and formed little pools of warm seawater, making it a great substitute for hot tub. Avi and Neev loved their sand bath in these pools while we soaked the sun to the hilt. Anurag taught kids to tickle the little fish. Avi learned to body board and we clicked some great shots of him riding the waves. He was captivated by sand and seashells and Neev loved to be in the water . At the end of the trip Avi got a huge collection of sea shells and they each got a shark tooth from Michelle as a souvenir.

One of the days we went to Barefoot Landing, a nice tourist place with board walks along the inter coastal waterway. The place is full of dining, shopping and entertainment options. We enjoyed seeing the tigers, ligers and their cubs. It was hilarious to see Avi and Neev in magic mirrors.

Another day we went to the local carnival and kids loved going on the rides with their cousin Jack.

Lisa's eldest sister Suzie is a dessert queen and we were treated to delicious cakes every night. We enjoyed meeting with everyone and spending another laid back week at the beach. I certainly could get used to this !

Outerbanks Trip

2011-05-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

We just returned from a week long vacation in outer banks. Having our dear friends Sue, Shibin and their four boys Mathew, Joey, Alex and Ryan with us was double the joy. Shibin and Anurag were disappointed that their charter fishing plans did not work out. I do wish them better luck next time because Shibin's wild tuna cutlets turned me into fish lover. This just affirms my favorite saying, ''never say never''.

I wish the weather was a bit warmer but all in all it was a great trip. There was lots of pool time and beach lounging. Avi and I also learned to play shuffle - thanks to Joey and Mathew !

On day 2 We took a ferry trip to Cape Hatteras and its National Sea shore drive. What beautiful beaches and what a beautiful sight of hundreds of wind-surfers enjoying themselves in the ocean !
Boys found it very interesting that the infamous pirate Blackbeard was killed right there in Cape Hatteras at Ocracoke inlet in a dramatic hand-to-hand shipboard battle in Nov. 1718. The attack was led by Lieutenant Robert Maynard, by order of governor Spotswood of Virginia. While the kids imagined the scene in their minds, we enjoyed the sun on our faces and admired the beautiful boats parked on the dock.

On day 3, we drove to Corolla and loved the drive. Some beautiful beach houses on each side of road lined the thin strip of land. Corolla is home to the famous Currytuck lighthouse. Boys enjoyed climbing 250 steps to the top of the light house. Was our out-of-breath ascend worth the breathtaking view of outerbanks from top ? You bet ! We are glad we picked this one since later I learned that this light house is distinct among its fellows along the outerbanks. While the other 4 lighthouses are painted in black and white vertical, horizontal and checkered patterns, Currytuck shows off its natural brick used in its construction. We waited patiently outside the lighthouse while Anurag took his time helping Neev climb down. His reward was to also see the old mineral oil lamps which produced light visible to 18 nautical miles before the light was automated in 1939.

On day 4 of our vacation we drove to Kitty Hawk to see the Wright Brothers National Memorial. Here, after 4 years of experimentation, Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved first successful flights in 1903. After watching the amazing movie about them we walked up to see the memorial. Its a 60 foot granite monument which reads, "Achieved by dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith'' around it. The gate in the front has 8 fine carvings depicting things pertaining to flying. Among them are wings of a bird, kites, a Britisher who tried to fly by gluing wings and flippers and a mythological Greek character who could fly.
At the bottom of the hill there is a sculpture park recreating the scene of the first flight. Kids had a lot of fun playing there , specially Alex who rode on ''Órville'' the entire time.
The highlight for us was to drive in sand in our 4 wheel drive by the beach in Corolla. It was awesome ! We are very proud of our truck to pull us through that drive (we did see a couple 4 wheel drives stuck in sand). Corolla is popular for its wild horses and guess what , we did see a magnificent looking family strolling on the beach.

This also turned out to be one big fat delicious vacation since every night we noshed on Shibin's wonderful cooking including Chicken Biryani, Fish cutlets, fresh milk shakes and smoothies.

We concluded our holiday by going for the night stroll on the beach . Anurag was holding the flash light and when we found a big live crab , it was time to return.

I stood humbled and unassuming in front of the ocean , my feet wet and sandy. I breathed in the smell of sea water one more time and said good bye!

India -brand new cricket world cup winner -2011

2011-04-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

Finally, the coveted cricket world cup is India's !

After India beat Pakistan to reach finals to face off Sri Lankan team, a friend posted his status on Facebook 'we won the finals , now lets move to semi-finals' :)

I have witnessed many world cups and other very interesting cricket matches in India (all on TV) and how India's victory or loss has affected the nation's morale and mood. If India lost, some of us sat in corners at home and mourned quietly, some of us got on streets and threw rocks on our beloved and worshiped as Gods player's homes . If India won, we rejoiced with fire crackers and distributed sweets much the same as a wedding at home or birth of a child. Such is the sentiment associated with Cricket !

If its Cricket , I have to mention my younger brother who is CRAZY about the sport and pretty good at it himself. His obsession with it made it extra fun for all of us to watch it back at home. I know its the story of most households in India when an important match is at stake - Just like ours where we surrounded the TV in comfortable positions, taking bio breaks only during commercials , pounding our fists for each downed wicket and shrieking yay for each four or sixer and eating 'khichadi' for meals because Mom was equally devoted to the match and would spend least time possible for cooking :) And God forbid if the electricity went out , the neighborhood would curse the electricity department and government like no oné business.

This past Saturday as India played against Sri Lanka in Mumbai, I watched the match here in America on my notebook's screen, pretty tiny compared to a big TV. Nevertheless , my little boys huddled with me to support the boys in blue and tried to share the excitement of their Mom's favorite's sport. Neev waited for waffles until the commercial break while Avi took advantage of my absorption by asking for extra time with his hand held video game. Last few overs of the match were tense and I had my hands folded over my mouth and my knees pulled together . The commentators were not making it easy either, saying one thing if Lasith Malinga had a good over and another if Dhoni and Gambhir scored two runs for a ball. The moment of truth arrived and Dhoni led the team to victory by swinging a brilliant sixer. And .............and the crowd went berserk and sitting here in my sun room I wished to be a part of that crowd, being able to shout 'we did it' and waiving my tricolor in wind reflecting the pride in my heart for my mother land. Instead I did a happy dance of my own . Neev and Avi stared at me first before joining in. I called my family immediately, announced my joy on facebook and sat again to watch the Indian team receiving the world cup. As much as it was a glorious moment for the team, it was a lot more to every Indian across all continents, a sense of eminence , a piece of pride !!

My 6 years old's take on the match -"I wish it was a tie'' ! When I asked why does he feel that way, he said, "becaue Sri Lanka is India's neighbor" ! I can appreciate my sensitive son's remarks and his knowledge of geography and I can savor India's victory too never doubting my American born children''s loyalty to the land their parents were born in because later in the day this was the conversation between Avi and Neev -

Neev - Avi, what is mother-land ?

Avi - Where you are born is called mother land.

Neev - What's our mother-land ?

Avi - America !

Neev - What about India ?

Avi (thinking ) -Umm...that's Mommy and Daddy's s motherland so that will be - our grandmother-land !

Its the same thing !

2011-01-28T19:30:00.000-08:00

Trying to play mediator between my 6 years old Avi and 3 years old Neev , I said to them," You guys really should not fight with each other. You are brothers and brother's have each other's back". Neev stopped and asked "you mean butt?'' I said ,"no I mean back''. Neev shrugged his shoulders and said, "Its the same thing, butt is on the back".

Are you smiling yet :) ?

Snap shot of year 2010

2011-01-25T05:12:00.000-08:00

So here we are, almost at the end of January and it finally sank in to start thinking , saying, writing it as 2011 instead of 2010. Another year slipped away like a fistful of sand with some leftovers of loose quartz on my palms. The feeling is overwhelming . Its like I terribly mind washing my hands under water, not wanting to let go of those remaining grains. Isn't letting go difficult ?

Its been a fortunate year of seeing my family, relatives, and old friends. Its also been a year of making new friendships. I left for India in February beginning, returned in mid June, my longest visit to India during my stay in States. I not only met but was able to spend time with my mother's side of family , my grandparents , my father, my in-laws, my both brothers, my sister and my two best friends. Upon returning back to USA, the later half of the year saw me happily connecting with our best friends here, spending thanksgiving with them in Winston Salem and then celebrating Christmas with my Cousin and family in Atlanta.

It indeed was a year of renewing bonds and reviving spirits. It was a year that made me want to hold on to. Preserving moments like a talk with my 87 years old grandmother who amazes me with her strength and who likes to (and rightly so) hand out the gist of life in form of apt verses and quotes from wise and famous poets and philosophers, making me realize how simple the life can be despite its complexities. That somethings will always be right and some be wrong, that the difference between black and white is a wider shade of gray and its not okay to use that gray to suit you when you need an excuse in life. Moments when my grandfather established a bond with Avi while teaching him to use a calculator, when my grandmother excitedly encouraged Neev to drink milk by himself by clapping her hands, when my father completely occupied Neev by playing 'Aaju Baba , Maaju Baba', kind of an Indian version of 'this little piggy' while I was away doing the course of 'Art of Living' taught by my brother, when my father-in-law made sure that Neev found him by his bedside in the morning during 'Navratri' because I was in the temple offering prayers along with my mother-in-law. Yes, there were a lot of precious moments of my visit that I will cherish all my life.

Its only natural that our heart and mind wants to clutch to whats good in our life. I know that I have to welcome the new year with new hopes and dreams. I also know that it will come with its share of frustrations and fears. The challenge is to move on and keep moving on and when in that journey I need to know if it's worth, all I need to do is open this post, reflect and reminisce.

Super hero

2010-11-07T20:16:00.000-08:00

Scene - Neev and I are locked out of our house . Anurag arrives with his set of keys and lets us in.
Me (saying to Neev with a sigh of relief) - Daddy saved the day !
Neev - Where is his cape?

Weekend of September 25th

2010-10-03T14:43:00.000-07:00

Scene - Family trekking in Bond Park on a gorgeous afternoon followed by paddle boating in the Bond Park. In the middle of the lake Anurag stops paddling and Avi does not like the idea of just floating in the middle of water not heading anywhere. He's had enough of nature's dose and wanted to head back home and play at playstation. Anurag and I were savoring the time in the warm sun and were not ready to leave yet. Avi, frustrated tried to paddle himself and boat started moving a bit.
Anurag - What are you trying to do ?
Avi - What I am trying to do is to get all of us to shore. If you don't help me, I am going to have to do it myself.

Funny Neev

2010-09-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

The other day my perfectly potty trained toddler got rather busy in playing with friends , ignored nature's call until the very end and barely made it to the bathroom. Later the big bro could not stop lecturing him on how he should listen to his body to avoid accidents. Somehow the lectures continued for a bit more than Neev's liking and finally when he could not take it any more, he told Avi, 'You don't want me to go here in my pajamas, do you?'. Avi said, 'no' and he replied. 'then stop talking about it'. Hard to express how funny the conversation was between two brothers.

Reverse Deja-Vu

2010-09-19T19:10:00.000-07:00

Something interesting happened last weekend. We went to Lazy Daze festival of our city, hung out for a while and then headed to the mall to cool off and grab a bite. As I hauled my 3 years old on my back , I promised myself to remember to take out the cell phone out of my jeans pocket to put back in my purse after buckling him in the car seat. By the time 'click-it' happened, the thought flicked out of my head. The uncomfortable bulge of the cell phone also somehow did not do the trick to pressure my brain to put it back in purse. We drove to the mall , walked in Sears and Neev had to use the bathroom. I took him with me to the ladies room in the store and as I was helping him to use the potty, he went, 'mommy your cellphone' and pushed it out of my jeans pocket. I found myself picking it up and putting it up on the toilet roll cover and imagining in flash of a second that I am going to forget to put it back in my pocket/purse , lose it and then be miserable because it has so much stored on it. I tapped myself back from the imaginary world to reality and thought, its only for 10 seconds, how can you not remember to put it back when you are thinking about it already.
Next thing , we washed hands, zipped out from the restroom and went to the food court for Italian. Neev guzzled mango-peach iced tea by gallons , did not touch any food and by the time we were done with lunch, he was ready to go pee-pee again. As I rushed him to the restroom , Wham, I realized that I did not pick up my cell phone from the rest room earlier. I could not believe myself. Anurag tried my cellphone and obviously it was turned off by whoever had got it. We went to Sears, checked the restroom, asked the janitor who happened to be cleaning and he said that he did the last cleaning 20 minutes ago and found no cell phone. We tried the customer service desk , nobody had turned in anything. We still gave our contact no. in case someone returned it later. So here I was sitting in a chair in the middle of the mall, watching the carousel go round and having a spin in my own head , thinking that I had visualized all this was going to happen and its actually happening. It was a nice Nokia E series cellphone, not a black berry or i phone but I loved it. More importantly it had some cute pictures of my boys , of moments that I wanted to capture when I was not lugging my over sized camera , some sweet messages that I liked to read whenever I needed a pick me up. And it had phone nos of people, important and also those who are not. It was my true companion when my husband could not travel with me to India on our last trip. It served its purpose when our Cathay Pacific flight descended at Tai Pei instead of Singapore because of a technical problem and I was stranded with 2 kids , trying to make head or tails of Mandarin signs at their airport, fearing I was going to lose my connecting flight from Singapore to Delhi because for sure I could not make it to Singapore on time. Thank God for my ever so smart husband who was tracking our flight online and was aware of this little mishap and his call at the right moment was a God send on that cell phone. I was literally in tears as Neev started feeling feverish. To be able to just hear Anurag's assuring voice on that cell phone was good enough to pull myself together.
It was this cellphone that I used to frantically call our family doctor in India at 1 in the morning because Avi had the worst stomach ache.
It was this cellphone that I used in India as a night light to trace my steps to light a candle when the power outage was so severe it made our back-up inverters cry.
It was this cellphone that I used to plan my little sister's wedding, to talk to my best friend, to my family and last but not the least to make Neev calm down in a difficult moment with his favorite 'hippo and leo' video that my brother's wife downloaded for him.
All in all it was simply not just a cell phone !
While I was lamenting the absence of my phone, Anurag went over to a couple of security officers and apprised them of our loss. We knew nothing could be done and were told so by those officers. I was upset and in no mood to use the Groupon coupon for Gap. We started back for home and I could not get over the fact that I practically saw all this happening in my head , and still could not stop it from happening. Mid-way Anurag's cell phone buzzed. It was Sears, telling me that my cellphone has been found , apparently in some other rest room which I never used. Never minding the twisted story, I was just happy to have it back.
This for me was a very interesting experience, to have this feeling of knowing what was going to happen, to live it the next moment with an unexpected happy ending.
In the end I am going to say, 'all's well that ends well' !

Year 2010 so far

2010-08-23T09:50:00.001-07:00

This should have been my earlier post than 'my kindergartner" since I have not posted anything in 2010 what do ya know, children always come first.

This year so far has been a year of BIG changes for us. It started on the new year's eve with a move to another apartment only 2 miles away from our current apartment because we wanted to be eligible to apply for the lottery school Milikan plus in Santa Clara. Knowing our luck we should have known better before playing any kinda lottery but like I said above , you would do anything for your children so not only we believed hard that we will be the one chosen in the lottery against 80 others but we also incurred all the insane moving expenses to move into our new residence in the city of Santa Clara. You never know what would have been unless you tried it , right (?) we told ourselves as the movers finished bringing the last box up in our new apartment sometime around 9 PM (really we did not schedule them to come in PM hours but apparently things got messed up and they ended up moving someone else in the AM hours). Being this the new year's eve and thinking everyone deserves a little break , we did not make an issue out of it. Tipped them well - they worked really hard and it was new year's eve. Looking at those boxes we wondered if we both liked drinking, this would have been the night to just let go. Turned out we could not find the glasses to even have water. Well, oh well.

January 1st doubles our joy since its also our little boy's birthday. We woke up really late and stayed a bit more in the bed for birthday & new year wishes, kisses and tickles. Headed out for birthday breakfast and had best pancakes and omlates ever. The waitress brought coffeecake for Avi to cut when she learnt it was Avi's birthday. Avi enjoyed all the attention in the restaurant. Later we picked up our favorite cake and cut it one more time in our apartment full of boxes. Thank God for my ever so wonderful husband who came up with a brilliant idea and made Avi's day super special by making a land-rover with empty tape rolls (used as wheels), a tin box (used as body of land rover) and a paper cut-out man holding a small US flag (which Avi found as we started opening the boxes). We counted our blessings , kissed our children, said happy birthday , happy new year and good night as we curled up in front of the fire-place and slept in the warmth of burning wood. Was having the fire place in this apartment worth all the expense and pain of moving ? (it turned out couple of months later that Avi did not get his name in the lottery) - may be !

In February kids and I traveled to India. Originally a two month long planned trip turned out to be four and a half months stay. The stars aligned and joyous event of my sister's wedding got planned in May. Wonderful times of celebration !

We savored the times with our family but heat not so much. Kids fell sick many times and I better not recall those really dreadful nights of Avi's stomach -ache and vomiting. If you are a mom, you know there is nothing more horrific than watching your child in pain. I missed Anurag terribly.Thankfully the sickness turned out to be all heat induced diarrhea and fever ( the doctor's assurance that it was a very common illness during summer did not laminate the fact for me that the kids suffered so much and lost a lot of weight).

The greatest outcome of our long visit is that my boys are talking in Hindi. Its AMAZING how Avi who understood a lot but never uttered a Hindi word is now primarily conversing in Hindi. They got to celebrate Holi in India, spent a lot of time with their Baba, Dadi, Bade Nanu, Badi Nani, Nanu, Mama, Mami and Masi and a lot of other extended family. As Anurag says, those memories and bonds are going to stick with them and not the bout of diarrhea.

Meanwhile here in USA, miraculously our request for transfer to NC got approved. We have been wanting to settle down here for a long time and it finally happened. I will bypass the details by just saying that sometimes things really work out and when they don't, having faith that such was not meant to be gives us courage to move on.

Now we are proud home owners in one of the best rated cities to live in USA and our children will be going to one of the top three, a blue ribbon public school in NC state. None of it guarantees happiness I know but for now I have it. The rest will follow.

My kindergartner

2010-08-22T19:14:00.000-07:00

Scene - Dinner time before Avi's first day of kindergarten

Me (in rather sentimental frame of mind ) - Oh Avi how I wish you could remain as little as you were as a baby. Look at you, you are now big enough to start kindergarten.

Avi (without missing a beat but pausing eating to speak) - Don't you worry, I still am the same person.

Shoe Shot

2009-12-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

Scene -We are on our way to optometrist for our routine eye check-up.

Avi askes - Where are we going ?

I answer -To see an eye doctor !

Neev goes -No, I don't want to get a 'shoe shot' ! (Recent visit to Doc for flu shot prompted the response which came out as 'shoe shot' instead of 'flu shot')

Holiday Lights

2009-12-06T20:04:00.000-08:00

A beautiful drive through the Vasona lake County Park , Los Gatos for half an hour of glitz and sparkles. City decorates the park with massive decorative lights every year. Our wait was not too bad and well worth it. Avi's favorite part was the Dinosaur Park and Neev's -watching Santa playing basketball. Ours - listening to the boys chit chatting.

Halloween 2009

2009-10-31T22:25:00.000-07:00

Avi, a pirate and Neev a Lion cub. Couple of Halloween Parties, lots of spooky games, visit to pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving (and Avi insisted that it stays on his bed side with the battery operated color changing candle inside), celebrating 'day of the dead' by decorating a special bread in shape of a doll , winning a raffle for movie tickets, visiting the haunted house and a huge stash of candies from trick or treating. It is getting better every year.

Fall Festival @ North Park

2009-10-25T23:36:00.000-07:00

On Saturday North Park Village hosted a party for its residents - food from different cultures, wine, live music, children's safety fair and a fashion show for children. Avi and Neev rocked in their cultural outfit round, casual round and Halloween costume round. Neev was a bit nervous walking the ramp but big brother Avi held his hand, walked with him, gave a pose with folding arms , blew flying kisses to the crowd and took a graceful bow. My little handsome models stole the show and was I proud - oh yeah !

Festivals....fiesta...friends...frolic..fun - Karvachauth and Diwali 2009

2009-10-12T23:13:00.001-07:00

After we moved out of Milwaukee, I'd been celebrating Karvachauth alone. Thankfully this year broke the lone continuation of that and my friends and I got together to observe the fast followed by feast in the evening. The night before Karvachauth my friend adorned my hands with 'Mehendi' despite her super busy schedule. She is a professional and the season of festivals is pretty busy for her. It could not be any more convenient for me since we live in the same building and I went @ 10 PM after returning from getting a facial at Club One Spa in Santana Row (Yep, this visit was part of the gift card my sweet husband presented me on Mother's day this year. Andrea,my aesthetician turned out to be quite an interesting person, an Engineer in day time, a writer in leisure time but her passion is learning about peels and facials. I could feel it in her voice as she started telling me about the 10% lactic acid application she put on my face. 'No need to be worried , she said, its going to brighten your face'). Back to Mehendi - Swati still had 2 clients waiting for her at that hour. Thanks Swati - it meant so much to me that you squeezed me in just because I had mentioned to you that I would love to put Mehendi on Karvachauth. The last time I put Mehendi was more than 5 years back. I had forgotten how much I love the smell of it. I left it overnight only to wake up several times in between to apply lemon juice and sugar on it. I woke up to sweet smelling hands and a rich beautiful color of red - my favorite ! I remember growing up, we celebrated 'Teej' and I loved getting my hands done with Mehendi. Those were the days when mom fed me by her hands because I did not want the Mehendi to get messed up. Those were the days when she would scratch an itch on my back or knee because I was particular not to do anything to get that Mehendi mushed. Those were the days when she would tuck wisps of my hair behind the ears because my attempt to blow them off my face would fail and I did not want to take a chance with my Mehendi by touching them. On a light note, those were the days when she helped me to the bathroom because......obviously how could I ? And then there was wedding Mehendi ! My mom, sister, friends and I applied it together the day before my wedding. This was the most special Mehendi of course. Half of my arms and legs were decorated with intricate, thin patterns of auspicious 'kalash' and 'soorya'. Cousins fed us chai and snacks and danced in front of us on 'मेंहदी है रचने वाली, होठों पे गहरी लाली, कुछ सखियाँ, कुछ खुशियाँ ये तुझको मिलने वाली हैं, तेरे मन को जीवन को नयी खुशियाँ मिलने वाली हैं' और 'मेंहदी लगायुंगी मैं सजना के नाम की'। Such vivid memories of Mehendi ! The first day after wearing Mehendi was all about not putting any water on it or lets just say, minimum exposure to it so the color , oh that vibrant red -maroonish color stays so. And it was manageable since all I had to do was - well nothing at all :) Many years and two kids later Swati's advice of no exposure of water to Mehendi next day was met by my questioning/statement making tone "you know I have to change diapers". She laughed and said 'just use gloves' :)
Our preparations of Karvachauth party had been going on for 3 weeks in advance and it had become quite a talk of the town, er........North Park. Lots of friends wanted to join in and we all were very excited. 50 or so threads of emails later we were all set with menu, music. dress code and a plan to have fun.
I hosted 'puja' at my place in the evening , decorated it with sarees, dupattas and candles with Gayatri Mantra playing in the background. All of us dressed ourselves just a bit shy of looking like a bride. And man oh man, did we look resplendent ? Well, the husbands thought so :) Everyone's puja thali was beautiful. Decorated with colorful rice, velvet paper and shiny threads, complete with sindoor, diya, sweets and water and covered with golden handkerchiefs. Yes, its those careful details in our routine life which make festive occasions not only special and exclusive but also essential to break away from quotidian life.
After a round of clicking pictures, we sat down to do 'puja'. I read "Karvachauth Vrat Katha' and we did 'Aarti' together. We did not let Aparna stop just at 'Aarti' and she sang a melodious 'ghazal' afterwards. She has a beautiful voice. Later we all headed to courtyard , lit the fire place and waited for 'Chandradev' to come up. He finally did and we all performed rituals of 'Chandradarshan' thru' the strainer , offered water and did 'Aarti' of our beloved husbands and prayed for their long life and well being. It was time to dig in now with all the mouthwatering food on the table - matar paneer, chole, aalu sabzi, dahi-vada, salad, pulao, puris, gulab-jamun, halwa and chai. It was a little crisp in the late evening but fire-place and chai did its work. I had a great time with my friends.
A week and a half later we celebrated Diwali at home , did 'Lakshmi Puja' and lit candles and 'diyas' around the house. The next day our apartment community organized a Diwali Party and a lot of Indian residents of North Park joined in. Kids had fun running up and down in the clubhouse and later lighting fire crackers.
Festivals are lot of fun and frolic and they double the joy when you celebrate them with family and friends. There is a reason these F's go together.

A day at 'Zeum', San Francisco

2009-09-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

This Saturday we visited Zeum, Children's Museum in down town San Francisco. Highlights-
Clay Modeling where Avi chose the theme 'space man'. We made 2 robots, one car and one dog and then turned our models in an animation movie by putting them in front of a background of a space, clicking pictures in different positions. The movie turned out to be like this - The team of 2 space men and a dog land on a planet with their space car, climb on a rock and then climb down.

Avi did karaoke singing with Hollywood written in background. He sang 'itsy bitsy spider'. We got the DVD made.

Neev enjoyed running on the slide watching himself on the screen where it showed like he was jumping into fire.

On Sunday we went to Neev's friend's Mahirah's birthday party. On my way to the steps, my shiny slippers broke. I was going to drive back to get another pair but decided to stay back and be barefeet . My friends understood and I don't think anyone else noticed :) The only sad part was that these were one of my wedding pairs. Anurag's take - they lasted 9 years, now you have to let them RIP.

Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Salt Lake City, Amtrak

2009-09-15T22:53:00.000-07:00

The vacation we were so.......looking forward to for last 2 months came and went. My first line sounds sad only because I am depressed that we wont have this long a vacation (11 days)anytime soon. We had such an amazing time that returning back to grind of life seems just that - grind ! May be talking about it would cheer me up. We started on 3rd morning at 4 AM. Even though we went to bed at 8PM , no one really slept through except Neev. Avi kept going back and forth between his and our bed, asking,'is it time yet?' Finally at 3AM we jumped out of bed, showered, gave David a wake up call (Anurag's colleague who was very sweet to insist that he would drop us off at train station). Yep, we did not fly, we took train - Amtrak, something we had been wanting to do for years - a long train trip. It was half the excitement of our vacation, not only for us but also for our friends who are still asking 'how was the train trip' instead of 'how was the vacation'. Avi and Neev had watched the train trip episodes of 'Cailou' and built a volcano complete with bubbling lava with their daddy and were all set for the train trip to Yellowstone.

Their experience was not much different from what was on TV. A courteous attendant helped us board on California Zephyr's sleeping car with our luggage, showed our cabin and offered coffee and juice. We could not wait to explore but first on the list was breakfast in dining car. Sumptuous omelets filled with vegetables and cheese, hash browns and warm croissants, french toast and hot oatmeal was what we picked. Friendly staff made the experience even better. They asked Avi to draw train on the table cover which he duly did with lots of smoke fuming from the engine. Meanwhile we checked out the passing by city, factories and walls full with graffiti. Not much different from India in that respect, I thought.

Stuffed with breakfast , I did not think I could be back in dining car for lunch soon. We made our way to the lounge car , also called observation car. Seats on both side overlooking the wide windows stretched on the ceilings , it offered a great view and scenery most of the way. On the speakers, the driver filled us in on all the historical places and told stories as we passed through them. Kids loved passing through the tunnels, specially the one which was about 2 miles long. They covered the whole length of the train several times by going up and down, pushing the buttons between cars, Neev waiving 'how u doing' to every single person he met and saying 'yeah' and nodding when people said how cute he was. There was another young and lovely Indian couple traveling in train and we found a lot of 'we too' things with them such as they moved to USA at the same time as us, they moved from SoCal to Bay area also the same time as us. Geeta has a degree in child psychology and no wonder she hit it off very well with the kids. Her husband Vicky lost $100 to her on the bet that they would not find another Indian family/person traveling in Amtrak. I had to console him that the money was still in family. They were also getting off at Salt Lake City and our arrival time there was the only thing that sucked. 3 AM was too early to wake up two days in a row . Our car rental was scheduled at 7 AM and we had to kill 4 hours in the waiting room (we kept that much of margin, given we are used to Indian trains getting late all the times). Well, Amtrak surprised us, not so pleasantly in this case by getting there EARLY. I am so thankful for Geeta and Vicky's company and warm weather, the time did fly off at the train station. Geeta and Avi played hopscotch , rescued mommy from bears and sang 'boom chick a boom' and several other versions of it. Avi and Neev climbed on the metal luggage attached to the rocks (I think that was a great idea to beautify a train station), kicked pebbles , watched other big trains and basically had fun. Thankfully those 3-4 hours did not seem too long. At 6.30 we took a cab, went to airport and the nice lady at Hertz upgraded us to a spacious minivan. We settled, put Neev's Cd's in and buckled up for my husband's dream vacation - Yellowstone (another one is South Africa) ! The kids drifted off as soon as Anurag put the key in and I wanted to do the same but sipped my caffeine instead so I could give my hubby company and have some uninterrupted talk with him which we seem to have only when the situation is exactly like this - long drive, kids sleeping . Salt Lake City is HUGE and surrounded by mountains. We have become so used to seeing atleast 5 Indian faces at every stop light in bay area that it felt different traveling in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana and not spotting anyone from India. That's why we were very surprised when we reached the West Yellowstone and checked in our hotel to see that it is run by an Indian family based in Reno. We asked very hopefully if there was any Indian restaurant too but there wasn't any (Lake Tahoe, CA had an Indian restaurant, Las Vegas had one too so I had high hopes). West Yellowstone is at the west entrance of Yellowstone, a typical small tourist town. While Checking out the town we realized there was s huge crowd of Indian visitors so my suggestion to Indy Johal, manager of our hotel - open an Indian restaurant as well and I bet it would be a smart business decision. I know Neev could not get his favorite 'khichadi' there but some 'dal chaawal' would have been soul warming to him. He ate poorly through out the week and survived on oatmeal, cereal, milk , yogurt and multi-vitamins. Avi thankfully was adventurous with food and enjoyed whatever the place offered.

The afternoon we reached Yellowstone, the agenda was to just shower, eat, rest and sleep , in that order but the kids just wanted to jump on the beds. Last two days of train excitement and erratic sleep did not keep them for long (thankfully) and we all retired to our beds early before waking up in the morning to step in Yellowstone National Park.

Our annual pass allowed us to bypass the long lines of cars waiting to pay the day tickets and we saved a great deal of time. As we entered inside the west gate, begun our amazement at the enormity, natural history, wild life , serenity and the beauty of it all. We were able to see and enjoy most of the attractions in both south loop and north loop during our stay but hiking and camping was not our plan this time simply because of the children. Other than the natural attractions we also enjoyed the lodges that we stopped at. Made of wood and stone, they were a perfect place to take a beak and relax in the evening and still feel all the amazement at the beauty of Yellowstone because they are designed to do just that. Huge timbers, logs, stone fireplaces and antlers are among the few things that left us mesmerized. Old faithful Inn's porch was a perfect place to sit on rockers and watch old faithful geyser erupt 150 feet high. Its definitely some sight. Our other favorite in south loop was Midway Geyser basin with hot water falls and grand prismatic spring. The colors of the spring are just spectacular.

Hot Mammoth spring in the north loop is not to be missed. Years of water erosion has formed steps like structures and the colors of bacterial mat are just amazing. Its a beautiful landscape of terraces sculpted by travertine limestone. This area’s unique scenery is created by hot, acidic water ascending through ancient limestone deposits — resulting in the travertine terraces.The view of grand mountains and the spring from the lodge side is majestic.

South and North loop are different. South loop has lot of thermal activity, fumaroles (steam vents), huge waterfalls and beautiful vistas packed with herds of bison, deer , moose , coyotes and wolves and it has charming Hayden Valley where you just want to pull up your car at a turn out and look at the beautiful vista of this national park.

In the bginning of North Loop lies the caldera of Yellowstone , also refered as Super Volcano and you feel amazing putting your feet in the very middle of the same ground which exploded 650,000 years ago. At Yellowstone, the caldera is so big that it includes a fair amount of the entire park. In fact, it is so big that scientists confirmed that the region had a caldera by looking at photographs from space.

North loop also has the view of grand canyon of Yellowstone , mammoth hot springs and towards east is Lamar valley with most concentration of Grizzlies. Lamar Valley is characterized by huge boulders which look like they are all strategically placed all over this area. We got a chance to see a pack of spotted deer very close to us in the valley. Speaking of wildlife we got to see LOT of bison , deer ,coyotes and bald eagle. We did not encounter a grizzly and did not want to return from Yellowstone without seeing one so last day of our vacation in National Park was spent watching the 'Grizzly and Wolf show' and learning a a few things about them. Avi and Neev loved running inside the Bear trap put on display (a tunnel like thing used to trap bears). They could not care less about watching the Wolves and Bears but climbing up and down on the made up mountains and going inside and running outside of the teepee tent was fun.

Anurag and I hope to return to this delicate ecosystem that is home to Old Faithful and two-thirds of the world’s geysers; where grizzly bears, wolves and other abundant wildlife roam freely. This is again one of those places where you lie on the ground (careful with staying on tracks because thermal activity is everywhere and you never know where your feet can sink in with acidic fluid capable of burning through your boots) look at the sky above and contemplate your existence in this world, in this universe. You think about natural history, your ancestors, evolution and the future of it and you think about the true meaning of hardships, passion and discovery. Without anyone telling you, you educate yourself because your imagination goes wild. You need those thoughts to put everything in perspective- that's what vacations are for. So you can come back relaxed, ready to focus on whats important.

On the last day we drove through the Grand Teton National Park , located in north western Wyoming. We witnessed a spectacular landscape rich with majestic mountains and pristine lakes.The scenery is different from yellowstone and we were captivated by the abrupt vertical rise of the jagged Teton Range contrasts with the horizontal sage-covered valley and glacial lakes at their base. Anurag and I kept debating if the white part on top and in between the mountains was snow or something else. As we got closer it became clear that it was snow. The lodges in Grand Teton were again lovely and warm.

We exited Grand Teton to Jackson and said bye to the national Parks. The next 300 miles of Idaho and Wyoming were open space, ranches with beautiful wood fencing, animals farms, huges bales of hay and a travel through a canvas of beautiful painting. After spending a week out there the entry to Salt Lake City's was flashy and my feeling was 'why couldn't we just stay back'. The only thing I looked forward to was Indian food. Thankfully there was Ganesh Indian Cuisine only 2 miles from our hotel. First time in the week, neev opened his mouth wide for rice,paneer, raita and naan, dosa , papad and biryani. Now all we needed was to crash in the hotel.

The next day's agenda was sightseeing in Salt Lake City. We went to the temple square and took a tour of the famous Mormon temple and visited Salt lake Tabernacle. The famous organ at the front of the Tabernacle contains 11,623 pipes, making it one of the largest and richest-sounding organs in the world, and the building was constructed so that even the drop of a pin at the front of the building can be heard at the back. Unfortunately the choir rehearsals were not on but we were able to see a singer rehearsing for a recording . It was a nice experience.

North Visitors Center of Temple square is home to an impressive, 11-foot statue of Jesus Christ known as The Christus and the blue sky painted on the sides and ceiling of spiral ramp is grand. We took the kids to the family history building where they dressed as shepherds and colored for a while. Outside the building there is a small cottage and the lady who showed me said it belonged to her great great grandparents where they raised 4 children. She said she was very proud and I could understand that. The cottage is now preserved with all original furniture and pots& pans , barrels and other things necessary to live. Its surrounded by pumpkin patch and my little pumpkin Neev matched pretty well with it.

Then we roamed in the downtown Salt Lake city and really, it all belongs to the temple. They have a number of buildings surrounding the main temple and they are BIG. In the afternoon we took the kids to Clarks Planetarium where Avi and Anurag enjoyed a 3D show in IMAX theater while I watched Neev as he took nap in the stroller.

It was time now to return the car and head to the train station to catch California Zephyr back to San Jose. After dinner we boarded the train . Our beds were made and we were ready to dive in. Neev and Avi were pretty tired and fell asleep in no time. Surprisingly all those swings of train movement did not work to put me to sleep and I was up all night. You can see the raccoon eyes in the pictures we took the next day in the train. We were home at 7.30 PM the next evening and I was so glad that I scrubbed the house sparkling before leaving (even made the beds). This is one thing I know- leave your house all clean before a vacation. There is just no feeling like returning to a warm welcoming clean home when you are bone-tired. A shower and hot moong dal khichadi with dahi was a combination proved to make us feel relaxed and at home. After the shower I could barely keep my eyes open through dinner and that night I did not wake up even once. The next morning I woke up all fresh and relaxed and to a pleasant surprise of realizing it was Saturday and not Sunday. We had lost the track of days and dates and for some reason thought that we only had a day before hitting Monday madness. Anurag was ecstatic over the good news. One whole weekend at home after a long vacation -thats all he needed.

Some interesting things about our vacation-

We forgot to pack the hair brush , did not buy one, did not feel the need for buying one. We just blow dried for a minute and were all set.

Our Armenian taxi driver in Salt Lake City was a fan of Bollywood music, did not understand the language but played 'Veer-Zara' for us. Yep - he had a collection of Hindi music CD's.

We need to treat Avi like he is not 4 but 14. At 'Dragon's mouth spring', we could not convince him that the 'dragon firehole' had a real dragon. He simply said, 'come on, its just the hot gushing water sounding like a roar'.

And then we changed our minds back again when he got on all fours and jumped like a frog to amuse Neev.

Avi and Neev got into a verbal fight of 'stop it' and 'you stop it' and a spitting competition and Anurag and I ignored it completely (not a parenting tip from us, just a memory of our decision of playing deaf)

In Salt Lake City downtown we visited the Jesus Christ's temple's children's museum area where Avi got friendly with a lady and her son, started coloring with them and then began telling them, 'you know my jeans got torn on the knees my mom cut out a letter A out of the patch and fixed it'. Its true BTW and as soon as we heard this, Anurag and I exchanged glances and started laughing. (I had mended Avi's jeans just before leaving for the vacation with an iron on patch but it wasn't something I thought he would pick to share with a stranger). Not stopping here, he continued, 'and also when my pajamas got holes in them, she stitched them'. At this point of time, Anurag and I were hysterical. We were obscured by the big wall so Avi did not see us but man oh man it was a painful laugh (laughing so hard while trying to be silent, I swear tears rolled from my eyes and my stomach hurt). I don't remember laughing like that in a long time. Anurag told me to be thankful that I finally got to stitch his favorite pajamas and jeans before this trip so at least when my son spilled our torn secrets to people, I at least came out a winner. Imagine if I hadn't done that.....Avi would be telling a different version and I don't want to think about it :)

Laughter is the best medicine

2009-08-16T23:08:00.000-07:00

This Sunday, we went to watch Indian Independence day parade in Fremont. As we were waiting on the street, someone dressed as a bear or a dog (the costume was really confusing) handed out candies to the children. On our way back home, Neev was recalling the event and practicing his vocabulary. He got stuck at the candy part and started asking whether it was bear or dog who handed out the treats. After listening to Neev's bear or dog question for 5 minutes Avi got really irritated and said, 'we don't know if it was bear or dog so lets just call him a man, okay !'

The day before was Janmashtami and we went to Livermore temple where the community organized a grand celebration. While waiting in the line for Krishna Darshan, I explained to Neev that we were there to celebrate Bhagwan Ji's birthday. His response, 'where's cake?'

Upon returning from the temple, Anurag changed Neev's favorite nursery rhymes CD to Celtic Women . Neev is used to getting his way with choice of music in the car .Usually it's better to just listen to 'I am not a baby anymore' , 'hello everybody so glad to see you' and 'hickory dickory dock' than listening to his do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti pitch of shrieking but that night Anurag was just not ready to suffer through 'ta-ra-ra-boom- de-ay' for the filiionth time (First I have to explain this Fillion word .One day we were talking about numbers and Avi asked me what's the highest one. I said, ummm..........trillion.......may be gazillion . He asked, isn't any number higher than that. I said no. He said, yes there is , its Fillion ! So folks, if there is ever need for counting after trillion, gazillion, its the term Fillion and for patenting purpose I declare its my son who coined it :) . Back to our music story -Anurag told Neev in a rather straight and firm voice that Daddy likes this music and he just has to learn to enjoy it. Anurag finished the sentence with 'daddy likes it'. Immediately and together Avi and I said, 'me too'. Neev thought for 5 seconds and then said, 'me three'. For few minutes, there was a burst of laughter in the car instead of music and then we enjoyed 'we're floating in the air' and other songs by Celtic women for the rest of the trip.

Potluck Feast

2009-08-09T15:15:00.000-07:00

This Saturday we had a Potluck Party with our friends at Cypess Lawns. I love our apartment community. Its a HUGE complex comprised of 6 buildings and managed by the Irvine Company. So I still have a piece of Irvine and its famous upkeep even after leaving Irvine 7 months ago. When we drove to San Jose in January, it was raining and trees were bare. I knew that not many places exist like City of Irvine .They polish their streets like obsession ,rebuild them even when according to me they are perfectly smooth , their shopping centers are great entertainment places and they are children friendly, have water fountains everywhere, surrounded by Palm trees which are covered in lights even when its not holiday season and the trees have speakers on them playing music all the time. They have beautiful, manicured parks and so many of them. And, you can't beat 15 minutes drive to ocean. A dream place !

Moving to silicon valley here was exciting but we were leaving Irvine, not a town in Missouri so obviously I was skeptical. Amidst the rain , cold and exhaustion from our trip to Disney the day before , we entered the North Park Village and I knew by looking around that I still would have a bit of Irvine with us. The community is around a rectangle shape city park followed by another GRAND rectangle shaped building which reminds me of a Las Vegas Hotel. This building is surrounded by Palm trees, has a huge pool. spas, cabanas, grills, fire places, couches, dining tables around the pool and then a gym, indoor basketball court, spinning room, yoga room , a large round water fountains surrounded by sofas and an Internet cafe. Did you think I was describing a resort? Very much like it ! It has 6 communities and all of them have their own facilities what I just mentioned and the residents have access to all of them . For a jog, picnic, barbecue or a pool party you never have to leave this place. Don't wanna cook lunch, the complex has Quiznos and tables outside looking over the park. Want to have coffee with friends , Starbucks is right here. Its late in the evening and you run out of milk, the community has even a store . Read a book in the library , play billiards , work out in a cardio-theater , shoot hoops in the full indoor basketball court, have a swim , get the chair massage at pool side and eat barbecue all the times. A perfect vacation spot, if only we did not have to work to pay the rent.

We have made a great group of friends here and we try to get together as much as possible. We had a pool party few weeks back and yesterday we had a great Indian lunch. Shahi Paneer, Chicken Biryani, Dahi Bhalle, Dal Makhani, Pulao, Idli, Sambhar, mixed veggies and Gulab Jamuns. We ate and ate and packed left overs for dinner. All the husbands took the kids for a nap while the ladies stayed for heart to heart discussions on blessings in life, aspirations, frustrations, kids and husbands.

A great lunch and a greater conversation , even the dinner and Sunday's lunch was taken care of. Life is good and doesn't stop here since we decided to do high-tea next time.

And I am thinking, I gotta send this to my community manager - she should agree to make my next year's stay rent-free :)

Rakshabandhan

2009-08-05T23:53:00.000-07:00

I called my brothers and wished them happy Rakhi. I have memories of us getting dressed in new clothes and doing tilak and tying Rakhi on their little wrists. I did not get to make memories of tying Rakhi on their grown up wrists since we NEVER got together to celebrate this festival in person in last 19 years. I moved to the hostel in 1992 and we were never together on Rakshabandhan after that. So the memories I have are of me and my younger sister in yellow frocks and skirts and my brothers in black shorts and striped shirts. Mornings started early as we told our brothers to shower and get ready soon (we could not eat before tying Rakhi, a rule which was not strictly followed). We would put a long and straight tilak on our brothers' forehead and tie Rakhi followed by feeding them something sweet and since I am the oldest in siblings , my brothers would touch my feet for blessings. I couldn't care less about customs and traditions at that time but now I know they were not just that, they were what I would call constituents of whole, whole which is me, my life so far. It affected my subliminal self , the reasons I have for my being today -Family ! And I know its not just with me, its with all of us. We all have memories, sweet and sour , relationships , sweet and sour and they all get credit for our concealed or obvious personality. They have made us what we are , they have formed our beliefs. They are the essence of us. And I don't know where I am going with this declamation. So I called my brothers and wished them well, bestowed my blessings on them, sent my love and missed them. We received Shilpy's Rakhi (my sister-in-law ) just in time for Anurag, Avi and Neev. And what lovely Rakhis - silver and sandalwood. I have to mention that Shilpy is one of the few people I know with an excellent taste in things. Avi enjoyed smelling them and Neev was cute beyond word trying to copy his big brother and taking big sniffs . Their tiny wrists look beautiful with them. I told Avi all about the festival . He is at the stage where I would love for him to have Bua, Masi and Mama around who could be other COOL grown-ups in his life who are part of his family.

It was a lovely day which we spent talking about Rakhi, playing with friends at basketball court and park in the morning, swimming and hot-tubbing in the afternoon and then going to Santana Row in the evening where Anurag and kids got ice-cream while I got a massage at Club One Spa, one of four visits my thoughtful husband gifted me for Mother's day this year.

Why don't we do this every day?

August trip to Gilroy Gardens

2009-08-02T22:57:00.001-07:00

Yes, we are making use of the membership. Made another trip to this place. I love it for its scale (small) and the thoughtfulness put to details keeping families in mind. Well shaded, lots of eating places and MUSIC everywhere.
Today we enjoyed the water play. While Neev preferred to get wet in my arms and not setting his foot down, Avi totally got in groove. He loved aiming water guns at different objects - barrels, wind chimes, watering can, water wheel . Got in a water fight with another older boy on the other side of the circle and held the ground pretty well.
Saw a bird show - a white cockatoo riding bicycle, scooter and even roller skates. She even did her shopping by wheeling a toy shopping cart and putting juice and bird seeds in it. Very impressive -I must say. Heard a talking red tailed Cockatoo who apparently is a celebrity bird and has appeared on Jay Leno and David Letterman show. It was cute. Neev preferred watching a 5 months old enormous owl sitting very obediently on the presenter's arm. Another Cockatoo flew through the hoops which the audience held in the crowd. A Pelican flew and danced for us on stage.
On the way back home , kids fell asleep. Avi refused to walk when we reached home. Anurag kept him going from garage to the front door but he was so irked at not being carried that as soon as we entered ,he dramatically fell on the outside rug , holding the door open with his legs. I tell you it was hilarious to watch a 4 years old putting this show ! Avi and drama are synonyms. Why not, after all he is his mother's son, my husband tells me .Well, Anurag had the Flip so we got a chance to record the scene.
Recording just so we can read it years later.

Blissful mornings

2009-07-23T23:22:00.000-07:00

When Neev wakes up early and still lets me sleep in for a few more minutes, running his fingers thru' my hair, twisting and turning his little body on pillows.

When Avi joins in a few minutes later and asks for good morning songs and adds 'its going to be a special day today'.

When we can skip breakfast and have brunch instead -OUTSIDE.

When the day is not planned and laundry & cleaning is taken care of the previous day

When I am on vacation and wake up in a suite but not in a hurry to 'cover' the attractions, just to enjoy a cup of coffee and let the kids jump on bed.

When I hear the pitter-patter -pit the FIRST morning of rain , its overcast and a bit chilly.

When we have to leave for a long road trip at dawn and catch the sunrise on the way.

When I caught glimpse of life thru' train -rides, passing by villages and towns, with a cup of chai on numerous over-night journeys between home and college.

When I started jogging with friends in Bangalore ISRO Layout and we found this beautiful temple en-route.

When its weekend.

Yosemite trip

2009-07-13T22:44:00.001-07:00

Our trip to Yosemite National Park was awe-inspiring. Spread in 1200 square miles, this place needs to be revisited . Things we covered in this trip was El-Capitan, Bridalveil Fall and Yosemite Fall.
The nuances of the Valley form spectacular rock formations, for which Yosemite Valley is famous but rising more than 3,000 feet above the Valley floor, El-Capitan is the largest monolith of granite in the world. Its more than a rock , a strength that you feel when you are around it.
Avi and I enjoyed the water play in Yosemite lower falls. Laying on the warm rocks with my feet dipped in cold water felt like getting a hot -stone massage. Avi loved throwing the pebbles in the falls. Outside the falls , he pretended to hunt the bears in the caves (lots of rocks around lower falls forming cave like structures) and save 'Mommy' from them. Neev did what he always loves, copying his big brother and chasing him all over.

The trip reminded me of my 19th birthday party at Pearl Valley, Bangalore . A bunch of us went on motorbikes , about 2 hrs from Bangalore and had a blast at water falls. And yep, my friends carried the cake and chole-bhature on bikes. Fond memories......

Like all natural settings , being there felt so relaxing. Gazing up from the Valley floor we appreciated the enormity of it all. Hope to go back sometime again.

Trip (another one) to Children's discovery museum

2009-07-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

Coudn't be more convenient. Train station is only 10 minutes walk from our home and I took the kids for a train ride. 20 minutes later, the train dropped us right in front of the Museum. A GREAT day spent making pizza, playing with giant blocks, painting, making rocket ships and straw dolls, blowing bubbles, checking out the fire truck & ambulance and a lot of other COOL things. Avi's favorite thing - watching flying lemons (as he liked to call the yellow and green balls flying on top of gush of air), Neev's favorite part -going up & down on wobbly conveyor belt shaped thingy.
My super mom moment - fixing a FRESH meal of pao-bhaji with all the paraphernalia -chopped red onions, lemon wedges, cilantro chutney and butter.
Highlight for Anurag - kids went to bed by 8.30 and we both watched a great hindi movie. For Wednesday, trip to museum, dinner and movie - it was a day from dreams. Loved it.

4th of July weekend 2009

2009-07-06T22:53:00.000-07:00

Pool, shopping, movies and a trip to Gilroy Gardens. It was all about Avi and Neev. Rides, rides and more rides in Gilroy Gardens. Fun for them but my head was spinning at the end. I am not getting even on the carousel next time, will probably just paddle the boat all day - that was the most relaxing part for me.

Sunday June 28th 2009

2009-06-29T23:06:00.000-07:00

Lovely Sunday spent with friends by the pool swimming and barbecuing. We grilled turkey and chicken kebab, paneer tikka, potato patties and vegetables. Yummy food and an afternoon of ladies talk - can't get better than that. Had a great time and can't wait to do it again.

My Purna Narayan - मेरे पूर्ण नारायण !

2009-06-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

During Shanta Dadi's visit we went to Hanuman temple, Mount Madonna in Watsonville. We started early morning around 6 and after about an hour and a half drive from San Jose, found ourselves in serene setting of Mount Madonna. Nestled within was a Hanuman temple, sitting on top. We climbed the steps to enter into a large open area complete with arrangements for havan and the step benches on both sides . Lots of bells , small and big were hanging from the ceiling. We did pooja and got tilak and prashad. The priest of the temple is not from India and yet very fluent in chanting shlokas in Sanskrit. He told us about the revered Guru Baba Hari Dass, founder of Hanuman fellowship in Mount Madonna. He also told us that Babaji would be available that day in the retreat which is rare as he travels a lot. We could not believe our luck. Avi and Neev loved spending few minutes doing ding-dong on the bells and running around before going on a short hike and then returning back for Babaji's darshan. Babaji loves little children and as Shanta Dadi rightly put it , 'we had our passports with us'. Sure enough Avi and Neev were the youngest in the crowd of devotees and it only took us a minute before Avi and Neev were called out to get 'candies' from Babaji. Babaji has maintained a continual vow of silence since 1952 and communicates by writing. I don't know what came over me but I did muster the courage to request him if he would bless us in form of giving Avi and Neev special names. He looked at them and then asked for their date of birth. In his own hand writing, he handed me a piece of paper and there was my blessing. My Purna Narayan ! He named Neev 'Purna' (पूर्ण), a complete, perfect being and Avi 'Narayan' (नारायण), a name of Lord Vishnu. Yes, they will always be Neev and Avi but every now and then I call them by these names and offer my gratitude to Babaji for his blessings.

You know how you have a feeling of calm and tranquil when you go to a religious place , whether or not you are religious OR you know when sometimes you go to a religious place looking for solace but you don't get that rest of heart . I am not sure what it was in the temple -lull of falling waters and balmy lavendar, vista of mountains and view of valley below, the energy & fervor from the devotees, feeling of revereance towards Babaji and his work, ........it captivated me ! I carried the feeling back with my Purna and Narayana and a few lavendar leaves.

Merry May -Neev's second birthday celebration, Shanta Dadi's visit, Trip to Monterey,Pebbles Beach, Pfeiffer Beach and Lake Tahoe

2009-06-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

May was truly merry and brought us a special visit from Shanta Dadi, a trip to Pebbles Beach and Pfeiffer beach with her, long weekend trip to Lake Tahoe and Neev's second birthday.

Neev turned two and celebrated with a Diego Cake and Party with his play group friends on May 27th. The party was planned in a hurry and thanks to all the guests who made it so special. Neev's little friends Rajit, Mahirah, Shravan, Aashka, Poorv, Rishabh, Sidharth joined in the fun and singing birthday song. The burnt almond cake was delicious and Neev loved opening all his presents. This year he seemed to enjoy the toys more than the packaging. Avi is almost four and a half and was delighted to get a goody bag from Neev's party - yeah right ,he was supposed to be playing host. Crayons, Bubbles, chalks, stickers and tattoos are still dear to him.

Lake Tahoe was beautiful. We've been told that its beauty should be checked out in both seasons. I think it would be gorgeous in winters so we have to go back. Avi was hoping to get snow and after a mile's hike down to Emerald Bay (and back up) his spirits were still strong to climb up the mountain to touch the snow. We had a hard time convincing him that its REALLY high and if we could not hike all the way. Driving down from the mountains there was a breathtaking view from a narrow bridge built in a way that you see the massive lake on both sides. You can not stop on that bridge and the drive is for just a few mts but my oh my,what a view! You have this massive lake flowing down below surrounded by mountains. one of those moments when you realize how tiny you feel in front of abundance of nature.
I loved our condo in Tahoe and realized that with 2 kids a regular hotel room with 2 beds would not have been a comfortable choice as this one. Avi and Neev loved having their OWN room and the fireplace (did I mention jumping on the bed). We woke up to a beautiful morning in the midst of mountains and tall, tall trees. Coffee never tasted so good before. I just never wanted to step out and do nothing but Neev could not stop saying beach,beach,beach. So we drove down to the Lake and spent a day lazying in sun, playing with sand and paddling boat. Who said water is colorless - I loved the hues of lake. It was clean and transparent on the shore, a few feet down blue, green further ahead (emerald, bottle green, sea green - definitely you could put a name on the green) and then far ahead against the Sun it was like shiny pyrite sprinklings, or white sand or the silver shavings -yeah , one's imagination could take off here.

In May beginning, my grand aunt, Shanta Dadi visited us. We cooked , laughed, shopped , watched movies and stayed up late talking and talking. Avi and Neev formed a very special bond with her. For them it was extra-ordinary to have a family member visiting. They miss her very much and want to see the pictures from her visit all the time. During her visit all of us took a trip to Monterey, Pebbles beach (also the famous golf course) and Pfeiffer beach. Believe you me , Pfeiffer beach was something else. I can still feel pure white sand under my feet - can't get better foot scrub than that :) At Sun set,huge rocks which have been cut by water over time , some forming the shape of a gate , some with holes in them, sieved the dimming light through these openings, creating a perfect scene for some awesome pictures.
Monterey drive was too good to be true combination of mountains and ocean. Simply loved it. I could describe it in another long paragraph but mentioning a flock of geese , a lone boat and a dried up tree would be enough to keep my memory alive.

Its been long time

2009-05-07T01:06:00.000-07:00

I don't feel like writing about Avi and Neev just because my blog is named after them. My days are filled with so many of their expressions, conversations and also frustrations that I fear them getting lost in tomorrow's time if I did not share them, if I did not record them.

Avi at 4 continues to be my source of pride , my sense of accomplishment . He loves his preschool, loves to draw and is beginning to read and write. His latest obsession is his lego table and blocks. His imagination is quite wild, reflecting in his creations of designs of cars and buildings that I think can only exist in future :) He is also going thru' the stage where he loves to have conversations with grown-ups other than Mommy and Daddy. In play ground, I can never have the pleasure of chatting with other moms, partly because of chasing after Neev and partly because Avi would want to tell his stories by ,"excuse me mom but if you have finished talking, can I please tell her about ..........". Oh yeah, he uses polite words - excuse me and please, only thing he does not understand how interrupting itself can be rude even when he is using the expressions 'excuse me' . We've had many conversations about this and his questions is always 'but I said excuse me and please' .

This morning he insisted on carrying his toy batman and missile launcher (its quite big in size and not an outdoor toy really) outside and I made it clear that I was not going to carry it for him in my bag if he got tired of holding it. Few minutes later in his attempt to manage the unwieldy toys in both his hands , it slipped and fell. Its an expensive toy and I have all the intentions to pass it to Neev in one piece. I forgot what I said about not carrying it and offered to help. He quickly agreed, adding, I thought you said you won't have have any space in the bag to carry it but if you'd like to...sure...! I am sure I could have come up with something to say to him, instead I just smiled and enjoyed as one of many tickling things children say.

Neev is almost 2 but it seems to us that he is always going to be our 'baby'. Luckily for me, both my boys are not stingy in doling out hugs and kisses and Neev has this special squeezy hug when he feels extra lovey dovey. I tell you there is just no feeling compared to that one. I wonder how long he is going to hold on to that. I know that I will....forever ! He is still not as much interested in playing with toys as running outside and exploring. He is still clingy and wants 'uppy' all the times. Usually I am not the one to complain except around dinner time :). He sings and dances and knows so many nursery rhymes it amazes me. He is starting to put the words together and the ones he likes to say all the times -'lets go out' and 'lets go pool'.

Both brothers love spending time with each other. Usually Avi is very protective of Neev and does not like it that I am starting to explain the concept of 'time -out ' to Neev. On the other hand I often catch him saying to Neev, 'Neev, if you don't leave my pick-up truck alone, I will put you in time-out' :).

Holi 2009 and years before that

2009-03-12T23:29:00.001-07:00

We celebrated Holi 2009 in Holiday Inn, San Jose.

As a child I have memories of that excitement on the night before Holi. I would prepare for 'holika dahan' in our 'aangan' by layering the 'balguriya' (small dried cakes of cow dung put together in strings - widely used in rural India as a fuel) in shape of a pyramid. Around that pyramid I would make a 'rangoli' (floor art) of 'abeer, gulal, haldi, kumkum and aata (green and pink colors, turmeric powder and flour). We would prepare 'puja thali' with 'ghujia', other delicacies made specially for this occasion and set it next to the pyramid. We would go to bed in the midst of holi songs being played outside on street shops. Next day early morning Papa would go to 'holika dahan' at the 'chowk' and bring the 'agni' (amber) from there to burn 'holika' (the pyramid I made the night before) in our 'aangan' . My Dadi and mother would perform Puja and then we would go in circles around the pyramid with the fresh stalks of wheat in our hands and roasting it on the fire . Afterwards we would sit around it savoring a cup of chai and enjoying the heat on that cold March morning of Holi. Later in the morning neighbors and friends would knock on the doors to play with colors, not always a pleasant experience . For children it was not a problem though. We always enjoyed coloring and getting colored. In my town there is a Holi parade where bands would be playing and people in masks would be dancing away. We would stock up on pales of colored water, balloons filled with colored water on the rooftop and throw it on those people and yeah....they would respond back with their high pressure water guns . As much fun as it was to play with colors, getting it off was so not it. My mom would make 'ubtan' (a mix of gram flour and mustard oil) to help us get rid of it but it was difficult to get it all off completely and as result , for 'Holi milan' that evening all kids would like monkeys with those faded colores on faces even in our nicest clothes. We would feast on puri, kachauri, curry, raita, ghujia, rasgulla and a lot of other treats. That was Holi at my house. After I moved out for studies, I enjoyed celebrating Holi at my friends home, in college, in hostel with almost same fun and not much difference.

I considered it fun and that's exactly what we had this Holi too. Neev loved it so much, he still cannot stop mentioning holi once a day whenever I say the word 'color'. Avi was so thrilled that a couple of times he took fistful of gulal and smeared it on himself. He made a few friends and enjoyed coloring them and dancing away on Bollywood music. It was quite a day as we also had to go to a birthday party in the evening . Luckily getting the colors off was not tough as they were all dry ones. As the kids fell asleep in the car on the way to 'Jump it up' , I got reminded of long nap we used to take on holi afternoon as they used to say 'रंगों में नशा होता है !"।

Our move to San jose

2009-01-08T22:24:00.001-08:00

We have moved to San Jose - heart of bay area, the silicon valley ! Anurag's transfer in Cisco has brought us here. Our new accommodation is great - pretty and plush. One can take a lot of pride being associated with Cisco here as they have a huge presence in this area. There are about 50 buildings in a stretch of 6-7 miles, a train station named Cisco way. Every where you go on Tasman Drive, its Cisco. Its also mini India here so no trouble feeling at home. Indian stores, Indian restaurants..............lots of choices.

Avi was lucky to get a spot in Cisco's preschool. Usually they run a long wait list. So far he likes it here. About me - no problems, its still California :) Anurag's work is demanding a lot of time so we have not gone out anywhere yet on weekends. I can't wait to see San Francisco. Hope to go there soon and write about it.

Avi's fourth birthday celebration in Disneyland

2009-01-06T13:13:00.000-08:00

Avi turned 4 and we celebrated with a trip to Disneyland. I was skeptical if there was anything for the grown-ups to feel like they were at the 'happiest place on earth'. Anurag had told me about their famous customer service and how a lot of companies in service industry train their employees with Disney. It was quite evident from the minute we paid for the parking. Without exception every associate we met was tremendously polite, helpful and knew how to actually help us. Avi got special treatment with buttons pinned to his jacket which said 'Birthday Boy" and "happy birthday', a special ticket printed with 'happy birthday Avi' and the highlight was when on Mark Twain Riverboat , Captain offered Avi to take the ride in his cabin which was on the top. We all enjoyed the hospitality along the mighty river, watching the world go by from the deck of the gracious paddle wheeled Mark Twain. Avi even pulled the bell of the ship throughout the ride.
Avi was the happiest boy so far but I was still waiting for my happiest moments. It happened when we took the boat ride thru' 'its a small world' ride. It was magical and I am not ashamed of admitting that it captivated me. I loved it so much that I was ready to wait another hour for the second ride. Anurag convinced me that we should try something else which may leave me even more thrilled and though that ride proved to be my favorite thing in Disney, I loved 'Finding Nemo submarine voyage' and 'Alice in wonderland' too. Avi went on Star wars spaceship virtual ride twice and got a kick out of seeing R2D2 and PS3O navigating the spaceship. Yes, at 4 he is already a fan of Star wars and Anurag is not disappointed. We went to 'Autopia' and Avi got a 'driving license' and did pretty well driving the car (with a little help from daddy). He was a bit shy when shaking hands with 'Buzz Lightyear' but smiled for a picture anyway.
In the evening the castle looked unbelievable beautiful with snow lights. The main street , the Christmas tree, everything looked beautiful . Even though we were exhausted, we did not want to leave. It was special for Avi as it is and at the end of the day 'the happiest place on earth' left us very happy too.

A lovely winter morning

2008-12-23T23:36:00.000-08:00

Thodi si zameen, thoda asman, tinkon ka bas ek ashiyan..... (थोडी सी ज़मीन , थोड़ा आसमान , तिनकों का बस एक आशियाँ - A bit of earth, a bit of sky , a bit of few things more for an abode)............ A group of teenage friends singing on the day of graduation from college - Saumya, Somali, Nidhi, Sandhya , Seema and I . We called ourseves 'Nisansotusalu' . It meant nothing, just the alphabets put together from everyone name and jumbled up in a way so it could at least be pronounced. The song we sang was special -hopes, dreams, aspirations and things as such.

The other day was a lovely winter morning so we went out to that church building opposite to our apartment where usually its quiet. They have swings in a circle shaped area and a big green pasture. So we went swinging for that's Neev's favorite thing to do. Later we played soccer with kids and went some more swinging. Sunshine kissed our faces as we swayed to the rhythm of going back and forth and I felt like singing that song. I did. Neev kind of liked it as was clear from his bent head against me, a sign of falling asleep. I glanced at Avi and Anurag playing soccer and continued singing...........थोडी सी ज़मीन , थोड़ा आसमान, तिनकों का बस एक आशियाँ !

Goodbye to St. Andrews Preschool

2008-12-21T23:48:00.000-08:00

Today was the holiday program at St. Andrews Church and also Avi's last day here (we would be moving to San Jose soon). The church was packed with parents. Children entered the church in a line with bells in their hands and singing 'Joy to the world' and 'Jingle Bells'. I caught another parent (besides me ) wiping eyes. It was really special. Avi walked with his friends and teacher to the podium and sang Christmas Carols they had been practicing in school. It takes a lot of courage and confidence for little children to stand in front of a large crowd and they all did so well .We finished the program with sandwiches, soup, hot cocoa and hugs from Avi's freinds and teachers. It was his first preschool and he liked being here. We'll be taking lots of good memories with us. Goodbye St. Andrews !

Sea World Visit in San Diego

2008-12-21T23:47:00.000-08:00

We visited Sea World in San Diego twice in a week. Their Shamu show (whale show) called 'believe' is unbelievable. We were lucky to also catch their sounds and lights holidays version in the evening with live music entertainment. Anurag and I had done whale watching tour 8 years back in Cape Cod and Shamu turned out to be a great memory refresher, actually even better. It was incredible to see 17000-22000 pounds heavy Whales so well trained and so elegant.We had visited the Aquarium in Chicago a few years back but I don't remember seeing anything like this. Avi loved watching whales but his favorite part was going thru' the transparent tunnel on electronic walkway where we could see Sharks swimming all around us. It was something to see those guys up close as they swam over us. Avi enjoyed simulated helicopter ride in their Arctic Zone and we were all fascinated by graceful Beluga Whales. We saw Walruses, Polar Bears, Penguins and managed to see all the holiday shows of Dolphins, Sea Lions and Pets. Yep, they had a show called "Pets rule" and it was hilarious watching dogs, cats, birds, and even pigs perform tricks that left us saying 'VOW' !

Neev LOVED watching Sesame Streets show in Sea World and wasn't a bit scared going on Elmo airplane ride and tea cup ride. He kept saying 'whee.....ee......' all the way and just wasn't ready to leave that place.

What did Anurag and I enjoy most - an hour's quiet ride back home with double shot of espresso (kids were so tired they had fallen asleep the minute they settled in their car seats).

My children ....updated

2008-11-18T11:18:00.000-08:00

Neev is almost 18 months old now and Avi will be 4 years old in couple of months. I can't help myself gushing over the moments when they are playing together. There are times when I hide behind the door to catch them pouring affection on each other . These are the moments when I usually have my hands on my lips and my heart going.....o....o......h ! Its adorable how Avi is willing to share his lovies (his blanket and little lamb) with Neev first thing in the morning. He would come to my bed and we would sing our good morning song. He would attempt to snuggle with Neev which usually would result in Neev resisting and at some point end in banging his head with some body part of Avi. Yep, its not always hunky dory but nonetheless, its precious in its own way. Sometimes they would fight for the same toy and for my attention at the same time but it is still fun to see the dynamics. If I try to discipline Neev, Avi would be like 'Mommy please don't talk to him in that tone, he is just a baby'. And the next moment I would overhear from kitchen that Avi is totally bossing Neev and saying the same things to him that he requested me not to say to his brother.

Neev is this adorable toddler who has a mind of his own . When we go out for walks, you can't make this little man go your way unless you want to pick him up. He wants to play 'follow the leader' with his never ending turn of being the leader. We have tried saying 'bye bye' to him thinking he would turn and follow us. We have tried hiding (and still be able to see him from a spot) and waiting if he turns back . Oh yes....he does turn back, scans and fearlessly marches on his way - without caring if we are there or not. If he spots us, he would make this gesture with his hands which says 'come on you guys'. He also loves to listen to songs and excitedly joins us by saying 'pop' in 'pop goes the weasel' and 'down' in 'the grand old duke of york'. His favorite place in the house is the bathroom. Nobody can use the bathroom without having to hear his 'knock knock' on the door. I have figured out that if you hand him a sheet of toilet paper in the beginning, he would let you go in there for 2 minutes which he spends walking in the rest of the house and tearing it before coming back to the bathroom door to say 'knock knock'again. Its an absolute delight to watch him run, bending over, pulling the magnets off the fridge, dumping the boxes out of my kitchen drawer and to be with his 'bhai'. That's right, he calls Avi "bhai' and its his favorite word. He gets so excited to see Avi when we pick him up from the preschool. Yes, he blows him kisses but also smacks him on his head sometimes (we are working on the 'gentle touch').

Avi is 46 inches tall and Anurag thinks he would be reaching my height VERY SOON. He is enjoying his preschool and last week in parent-teacher meeting we were told that he is doing great. He can count up to 23 objects correctly and loves to talk. His favorite time is when Michael (guitarist) comes and plays for them. His favorite song currently is 'the grand old duke of york'. Its hilarious how he sings it without missing a beat or a word. Last week we were told by Avi's teacher what he said to her, 'Barack Obama is our president now and when I am 100 years old , I am going to write him a letter and invite him over to my house'. She thought it was really funny. It is, and no surprise to me because when we go grocery shopping, he is always pointing to magazines on the checkout counter saying, 'look Mom, there is Barack Obama - our president. I want to call him and meet him". Sure dude, even I do !

His love for reading continues and his imagination can take him anywhere from caves of Oklahoma with bats and spiders and to outer space in his rocket ship where 'he' is an alien. Sometimes he is a superhero and rescuing people and sometimes a robot. His favorite color to draw is black and his interpretation of abstract art is usually airplanes, rockets, storms and caves.

I've been missing our family in India a lot and I know they miss us too. This piece is specially for them to get an idea of what Avi and Neev are doing right now. Love to everyone !

San Diego Zoo

2008-11-17T14:04:00.000-08:00

Its November but no sign of winter here. We visited San Diego Zoo last weekend. We all enjoyed it, specially riding the zoo fary and the bus tour. They had the largest reptile collection that I have seen so far and believe me , I've been to a lot of zoo (s). I've always been very afraid of snakes but at the same time they have not ceased to fascinate me. The setting of looking at them up close behind the glass window is perfect for someone like me. We saw some rare species of rattlesnakes of which a white one was just unbelievably captivating. It was about 4 feet long, pretty thick and had white beaded skin. I am not the one to call snakes 'pretty' but this one actually came close. It stood totally different from others - graceful. Anurag and Avi had witnessed a very active King Cobra who according to them put a show in tandem with his reputation of being ferocious and deadly. Quite apparently this guy was not very happy either being caged or having too many pairs of eyes prying and was moving a lot, standing up and showing off his fangs and tongue.

We also enjoyed watching Koalas tugged to the trees. We learnt that not many zoos have them and San Diego has a climate for growing the only food they eat - eucalyptus. Its a huge zoo and there is no way a family with kids can cover it in one day so we'll go there again........soon.

Pop goes the weasel

2008-11-05T22:32:00.000-08:00

We call Neev our little parrot since he loves to mimic all sounds and words he hears from us. He calls Avi 'Bhai' or 'dada' , calls me 'Mimi' and Anurag 'Da...ddy'. For a last couple of days when we sing 'all aorund the cobbler's bench.........', he gets excited when the word 'pop' is about to come and joins us to shout 'pop'. It just cracks us all up.

Nicknames given to Neev by his big brother are 'Neevo', 'Neevi', 'googli eyes' and 'bottomi' (during diaper changes and after shower moments). It's hard to explain the joy seeing them interact. Avi lets Neev pull his hair but does not like getting disturbed during his TV time. Neev loves to have Avi put his head in lap and tickle him.

This is just so I don't forget all these little things....

October action summed up...

2008-11-02T20:51:00.000-08:00

I posted so little in October it may give an idea that nothing much happened. Actually it was a month full of crazy, busy , action . Trips between theater, playground, preschool, playball , not to mention costumes and Halloween parties. Avi decided to be Pirate this year . Neev dressed as Pumpkin for one party and as lion for another. He looked so cute in the lion costume , friends joked that this lion wanted to be eaten . Last week we went to Boo Bash to University Park where Avi loved to throw the spiders in their webs and catching fish in the net.

Week before that visits to Strawberry farm and pumpkin patch were very enjoyable . Avi got to ride the pony and Neev loved to roll in hay. Day before Halloween we carved a pumpkin and I was pretty happy with the outcome, this being my first carving project and all. It made a cute and pleasant looking jack-o-lantern. Finally Halloween, trick or treat and a great 'After Halloween Party' at my friend Tina's haunted house. She did some serious decorations in her house and Avi was not one bit scared or overwhelmed with all grown ups in costumes. He in fact loved trailing the pretend cockroaches and mice Tina had put everywhere against the walls. Her jell-o dessert was yummy , only in shape of a skeleton hand and smashed brain, yep .....brain. It did not stop the guests hacking into them or enjoying the 'pusballs' she named her cream puffs.

We celebrated Diwali at home and I was very proud of myself for arranging 'all' the items necessary to perform 'pooja', including holy water from Ganges. Avi loves doing 'aarti' and can sing along a lil bit. Later that week we celebrated again with a bunch of friends and potluck dinner. 'Bhagwan Ji' brought Avi a remote control car and 'Batman with missile launcher' for being a 'good boy' this year and he was thrilled. Now he wants Diwali everyday :)

Last week we also went to 'Wild Animal Park' in San Diego and loved it. This was our first long day trip in a long time and we learnt that single stroller would not do for any trip requiring to be out for more than 3 hrs.

For November I hope to record my life more frequently as it happens.

Steel Magnolias Farewell

2008-10-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

It opened with a smash and last Saturday was sold out. Actors deserved all the accolades they got. Orange County Theater Company got compliments for its superior and professionally staged drama. It was a great experience for me being the Stage Manager for the show. I had such fun with this team. Made new friends and met some really nice and talented people. Tonight we all met for dinner and had a great time. We kept saying the lines from the play and kept laughing. We won't be rehearsing Steel Magnolias anymore but who knows.....may be something else.

Irvine Global Village Festival

2008-10-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

Haven't documented few things we did in last few weeks.

On October 4th we went to Irvine Global Village Festival. Irvine's signature annual event, expanding awareness and highlighting the extraordinary diversity of this city. A chance to explore more than 50 different cultures, sampling new foods, learning to belly dance, learning about world religions, experiencing the world without ever leaving Irvine.

We loved that India had a huge presence in the festival. A lot of food sampling, HSS's small subset of the Hindu Exhibition and Surya Namaskar demonstration, Mandir's booth and my favorite - several Indian dance performances. It turned out to be perfect weather too. Avi and Neev enjoyed the shuttle ride. Avi wanted to know how long he'd have to wait to be a Police Officer so he could ride the cool electric scooters like them. He watched the Puppet show and listened to a story in Noah's ark. Neev loved running on the grass and we loved watching our little doll tumbling and toddling. It was Fun.

Back seat Driving

2008-10-14T23:23:00.003-07:00

I have a back seat driver in my car. If you guessed my husband (usually is in most women's cases), sorry ! Its my 3.9 years old boy. Okay, so I have been sneaking a bit of driving wisdom while telling him about stop sign rules, slowing down on yellow light at the intersection and watching out for Pedestrian etc. (Just so he would imbibe it and it may come handy 13 years later when he starts learning driving ). I did not think he was paying much attention to it until recently when HE HAS started giving me lessons on good driving.

While driving to drop him off at the preschool (8.15 AM) I reached for my insulated chai cup to take a sip and he said, 'that's a distraction Mommy, you should not do that when you are driving".

The other day I reached for my overhead sunglasses holder and fumbled to pull my shades and he said, "Mommy you should have both your hands on the steering wheel".

Another time I was the victim of bad timing judgement on my part and braked rather hard when yellow light turned into red at the intersection (don't we all go thru' that- between slowing down/speeding up on yellow light sometimes) and he said.,"that was not very smooth Mommy , you should not do that" (that one was as cute as it was annoying and in that moment all I said was , "Uh Huh" ).

And today when I went to pick up Anurag from his office, I pulled up in the 'disabled parking spot' for just a minute. This owes an explanation -Anurag was already there at the office gate and I needed to spend just 10 seconds to change spots (Anurag prefers driving himself when he is in the car). To my son, time was not the matter, the matter was that I broke a rule. He said, "Mommy please don't do that again, that spot is for wheelchair people". Yes, he noticed the sign.

And in the evening when I got ready to go to the rehearsal, he said "Bye Mommy , drive safe".

Sleep Sweetly Sleep

2008-10-02T21:12:00.000-07:00

I love sleeping. I love naps. I don't like the idea of Power naps . I like my afternoon siesta stretched to 2 hrs. I love waking with a head clear of weight and feeling warm afternoon Sun on my cheeks and eyelids. Add a cup of ginger & clove tea and that's my idea of life. Heaven ! Well, close. Rewind 4 years of my life reel and it was not such a rare thing. I wasn't working ... actually could not work (forced decision because of my dependent visa status). I blamed my break on the government policy and LIVED LIFE ! I stayed up late, woke up late and took naps. I did not know that it was God's way of compensation to what was to follow. Four years and two kids later the idea of sound, uninterrupted sleep exists only in my fantasy . Familiar to many moms around the world, here is my nightly schedule beating up the 'Sleep tight' stages of full night's rest-

Waking -
The waking stage is referred to as relaxed wakefulness, because this is the stage in which the body prepares for sleep. My relaxed wakefullness schedule after the kids have gone to bed - plop the notebook in my lap ,free of children only at this hour, check emails, replying to them or postponing replies to hop on cnn.com or msnbc.com to check the latest scoop on Sarah Palin (just kidding). After realizing that nothing in the world outside my world has changed much from yesterday or day before, I decide to check tomorrow's calendar and get a head start on that - packing water and dry snacks in our Great Park sack (I love to use it for everything - from toting library books to groceries). Groceries on my list - I check to see if I have coupons for anything (yep ! I clip coupons ). Oh, Did I mention the dishes, leftovers and cleaning kitchen because sometimes I leave that for until after kids have gone to bed , to spend some more "meaningful time" with them. So, the relaxed wakefullness period .................ahem..........is not the onset of what's to come as next stage of sleep cycle.

Stage 1
Stage 1 sleep, or drowsiness - usually lasts for 5-10 minutes. When I should be taking cues to head to bed, I remember to brush my teeth and put my socks on. I approach my memory foam , my body and brain longing to shut the world up. As I lay down, ready to hit the stage 3 , my brain refuses to co-operate , it refuses to slow down. Instead its on lightening speed, flashing a gazillion images and thoughts. I beg for it to slow down, I somehow try to train it to not think, not at this hour anyway. It works as my muscles relax and my heart rate begins to slow down. Finally when I am ready to drift off, Neev who co-sleeps with me and is used to nursing on demand, wakes up and would not get back to sleep without a snack. There......my hard work at stage 1 sleep ....ha...ha !

Stage 2
Stage 2 is a period of light sleep during which polysomnographic readings show intermittent peaks and valleys, or positive and negative waves. I am more than ready at this point and somehow manage to rest.

Stages 3 and 4
These are deep sleep stages, with Stage 4 being more intense than Stage 3. These stages are known as slow-wave, or delta, sleep. Well, sometimes I sleep thru' it and sometimes not.

Non-REM Sleep
The period of non-REM sleep (NREM)is comprised of Stages 1-4 and lasts from 90 to 120 minutes, each stage lasting anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. Surprisingly, however, Stages 2 and 3 repeat backwards before REM sleep is attained. So, a normal sleep cycle has this pattern: waking, stage 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, REM. Usually, REM sleep occurs 90 minutes after sleep onset.

Some nights if I am lucky, I complete Non REM cycle and enter the next one but on most nights during this stage, Avi works his way to slip in family bed and the game of returning him to his bed starts which include bathroom break & massage of his back and feet (his favorite excuse to sleep in family bed - "my back and feet are hurting and they need a massage"). Trust me, we have already ruled out the possibility of this being true (with Doctor).

Stage 5, REM
REM sleep is distinguishable from NREM sleep by changes in physiological states, including its characteristic rapid eye movements. Intense dreaming occurs during REM sleep as a result of heightened cerebral activity. I am not even sure if I want to enter this cycle. Yep ....I don't want to dream....................most of the times they don't make any sense anyway and other times they are completely weird and if I manage to remember them , my next day is spent trying to analyze it and make heads or tails of it. So nope, I don't want dreams, I need sleep - good, long, unbroken, undisturbed and unending (I don't have a death wish, I just don't want a clock to govern it on some days).

And before I know it............. tick tock, tick tock , its time to sing "Good morning, Good morning, Good morning to you. Our day is beginning , there's so much to do".

There is so much to do. Ain't that true !

Magical

2008-10-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening we had the rehearsal for "Steel Magnolias" and Carine (who is playing Shelby's part) could not join us. Alba asked if I could read for Shelby and Hunter said yes. I have been watching these ladies at work for weeks now. They play the characters of 'Steel Magnolias' like the next best thing to movie stars and it's impossible not to get infected with their style. So......I read for Shelby and really enjoyed it. Hunter said "I was magical". Magical ! Not sounding egotistical but hey, that's a good complement. My evening was golden.

Coming Friday we have the complete run thru' at actual stage and the show opens on Saturday - my first stage Management -I am excited.

September Sunday

2008-09-28T22:49:00.000-07:00

Time -5.00 PM

Plan - To have dinner by the pool

Scenario - Avi tired but still working on his Rainbow Fish Puzzle

I want to bring in some excitement in the dull afternoon by announcing rather cheerfully, "Yey, I am all set to barbecue , let's go grilling".

"You mean grill the puzzle", Avi said without looking up.

Avi and Neev - Bath time

2008-09-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

Neev loves water- drinking it and playing with it. So much so that its becoming a problem for me to take him for evening walks. Usually around 5 in the evening I take the kids out in children's play area. There are a bunch of kids around that time . Avi rides his scooter with his friends while Neev likes to walk with me. The pool is also right there and all Neev wants to do is move his hands in splashing motion and run to the pool gate. Its started to get a bit cold in the evenings now so I tell him that he can splash in the bath tub later. My promise does not do any good in preventing his cries as I take him away from the pool. The other day during Neev's bath time Avi surprised me by saying that he would like one too. I don't know why but Avi stopped taking baths long time ago. He does not like it. 'Only shower Mommy', he says. May be seeing Neev having fun in the tub he got tempted. They were playing very amicably with the boats, cups and ducks and then we heard Avi screaming ,'Mommy.....Mommy....". Anurag and I ran in the bathroom. Avi had accidentally pulled the plug . He screamed , "Neev is going to drain Mommy". Anurag and I burst out in laughter. We wrapped our innocent angels in bathrobes as Anurag tried to explain to Avi that a tiny hole could not even drain his boats and cups, much less his brother. And then he asked "but what about his toes ?"

I could not trust my memory to remember it later when I need a good laugh hence this goes in my corner.

Avi's first Movie in Theater

2008-09-23T22:19:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday Anurag and Avi went to watch 'Space Chimps' - Avi's first movie in theater. For a total movie buff family that we are, 3 years and 8 months was too long a time period to keep their child blind to big screen experience. Anurag had been waiting a long time to watch a movie in hall after consoling his heart for nearly 4 years that our home theater system and 42 inches screen is not so bad.

Avi came home and could not stop talking about the "BIG TV". He said it was a bigger TV than mine. "Mine" ? Usually he refers to all things in our house as "Ours". Suddenly after realizing that there is a bigger screen out there, our 42 inches became very old fashioned and thus it became "Mine". Anurag told me that he sat in Anurag's lap the entire time . Not because of the darkness he said, it was because his chair kept folding up. And his favorite part was not related to the movie at all. It was the video games that they have in the theater. "Just like 'Dave and Busters Mommy", he said.

Steel Magnolias

2008-09-20T00:59:00.000-07:00

For the last few weeks I've been a part of Orange County Theater Company, involved in stage management of 'Steel Magnolias'. For those who are not familiar with the name, its an Oscar nominated movie of 1989, original screenplay by Robert Harling, directed by Herbert Ross, featuring Julia Robers, Sally Field, Darryl Hannah, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLain and Olympia Dukakis. OCTC Director Hunter Dion is bringing 'Steel Magnolias' to the stage in Irvine on October 4th, 11th and 18th. I have the pleasure and opportunity to be a part of this drama. The cast is fantastic and very talented. Carine is playing Shelby, Dayna -Truvy, Tracy - M'Lynn, Alba -Clairee ,Tina - Ouiser and Ashley -Annelle. Carine brings 15 years of acting experience with her which totally shows when she is at work. Tracy is also playing M'Lynn in real life to her 13 year old daughter so she does not really have to 'Act' - it all comes pretty naturally to her. Alba has the composure and grace which is needed to play Clairee. Dayna is every bit chirpy, energetic and good natured as Truvy. Ashley, a versatile & talented young actress has just stepped in Annelle's shoes and is up and running in them already. And what can I say about Tina- you just have to see the rehearsals to realize that Tina in real life is funnier than Ouiser Boudreaux. She is the reason that we are laughing all the time. All together these ladies delightfully portray the loquacious belles of South.

Hunter has given all of us nicknames. Carine - Ricochet, Alba-Tequila, Tina- Lola Bola, Tracy - Spacy, Dayna - Dana Point ,Ashley- Mimi. In the beginning he told me about it and I thought it was really interesting. Since he's worked with most of them in the past so may be there is a story behind every nickname. When he graciously agreed to let me be part of the crew, I got on his mailing list and started receiving emails. It wasn't me who noticed it...it was Anurag ....who said that Hunter has nicknamed me 'Star Trek Girl'. So I am the Lieutenant of my crew.

Personally this experience has been more than just entertainment to me. Hunter has been very encouraging and understanding. Thanks to him -I am beginning to get a grasp on nuances of Theater operation. I can't wait for the show to open so I can test my skills.

Here is a video that Hunter made from the rehearsals.You can catch a glimpse of me towards the end :)

2008-09-20T00:36:00.001-07:00

Steel Magnolias

Pirate and Batman

2008-09-19T23:33:00.003-07:00

We took the kids to Festival of Children at South Coast on Saturday where Avi chose to get his face pained as Batman. Last year it was Spider Man and the Lion. Neev watched with curiosity as Avi's familiar face turned into something stange to him behind the Batman mask. We thought he might enjoy little tickling of paint brush on his own round delectable cheeks. I use the adjective delectable as his aodrable cheeks remind me of Indian dessert 'Laddoo' and I always feel like gobbling 'em up. I don't blame him when he turns his head away at the sight of mine or Anurag's pouting lips in the direction of his cheeks . It must be irritating having someone's mouth there always.What can we do - seeing the rate at which Avi and Neev are growing , we want to get our fill before they stop being so cuddly. Anyway, so we thought that he might like a few swipes of colors on his face. The face painter showed us a few designs and we thought he would look really cute as a 'Panda'. She started with the black paint around one of his eye and Neev started bawling. ofcourse Anurag got up immediately but the move did not calm him down. Now we had this sobbing baby with one very distinct black eye and people looking at us, some of them without kids might be thinking we just punched him in the eye. Neev looked far from looking like a panda and when finally he calmed down, I dared to go back to the face painter telling her it would be nice if she could may be turn him in a pirate by adding a moustache. Afterall I wanted my baby to look anything but someone who just got a hit in the boxing ring. She agreed and while I was still holding Neev, he got a moustache on one side of the lip before starting to cry again. This time it was more intense lacrimatorial scenario since obviously I did not learn my lesson at his first crying session and he had to make a stronger case. So there we were, having our supposed to be Panda face baby, now covered with black eye patch slowly running in tears and with one side of moustache. Thanks to plenty of interesting distraction ,he calmed down quickly. He actually looked super cute with his daubed face. Avi on the other hand was feeling very pleased with the Batman mask. His checkered black shirt combination was perfect for 'Little Man in Black'.

The Mamas and The Papas

2008-09-10T23:02:00.001-07:00

I am not referring myself and Anurag to the title. It's actually a band from 60's .

When we moved to California, some friends asked us not to turn into Californians . I had no idea what they meant. I still have no idea what they meant. All I know that I love living here.

We have watched shows , movies depicting charm of this western land and heard about its glory and beauty in lot of songs. People aspiring to go to California, to make something out of their lives, to make their dreams come true. Anyways.......back to the band -Mamas and Papas gave this big hit 'California dreaming' in 1960's. Anurag and I love it - it has a bit of sad overtone , specially the flute playing in between. Don't know why but listening to it makes us feel somewhat ...............I don't know ....... I feel a bit reticent writing about it .

So here it is , the lyrics and the video (if it does not upload ,as you know I am having trouble with uploading pictures and videos,watch it on youtube). Chances are you will like it.

All the leaves are brown

And the sky is gray

I've been for a walk

On a winter's day

I'd be safe and warm

If I was in L.A.

California dreamin'

On such a winter's day

Stopped into a church

I passed along the way

Oh, I got down on my knees

And I pretend to pray

You know the preacher likes the cold

He knows I'm gonna stay

California dreamin'

On such a winter's day

All the leaves are brown

And the sky is gray

I've been for a walk

On a winter's day

If I didnt tell her

I could leave today

California dreamin'

On such a winter's day

(California dreamin')

On such a winter's day

(California dreamin')

On such a winter's day

The mamas and the papas - California dreamin

Montessori Miss.....may be not !

2008-09-05T23:07:00.000-07:00

Avi would miss the cutoff date of going to Kindergarten next year (his birthday being January 1st 2005) which means another 2 years of preschool. I started searching for a spot in a Montessori preschool for him sometime back. Its been frustrating calling the ones I want and the ones which are close to us that I am too late even to get a seat in the next session. Within 5 miles radius I have 10 top class Montessori schools and NONE of them have a spot for another 2 years. When we first moved to Irvine, we were not sure if we were going to be here for long term and preschool was far from our minds. Avi and I were happy taking mommy and me classes and exploring the parks. Before long we were ready for him to try the drop off program and though he cried a little in the beginning, he soon started to enjoy it. We all were happy doing this program and a bunch of other fun classes, until…….UNTIL some of my other friends updated me about their schedule – a full time , full week Montessori preschool, summer camps, swimming classes and “Kumon”. “Kumon” for a 3 year old ? For those who don’t know about it, its one of the private tutorials which have cropped up like weeds here. It has a strict sit and learn philosophy much like followed in India. My friend’s son is very precise with writing the numbers till 100 and upper and lower case alphabets and is on his way to reading a simple book of 3-4 letters. As I started talking to some of my other friends about it, I learnt that my friend is not the only one giving her child a head start. I was also told that families who have plans to go back to India, they have got to prepare their child for higher standards or else they may not get admission into a good school back home . I take pride in the fact that elementary education standards are higher in India but in the system – not so much. Not the one which was in my times anyway. I remember having excessive homework, pressure to perform, pressure to keep up with the image which came with being a ‘good student’. My life as a student was anything but fun. I can not argue if that system works or not because so many of us have made it big and far in life and may be one of the things to owe thanks to is the heavy backpack and loads of homework. All I know is that learning is hugely important and should be primary focus of education. I also believe that education system should be able to produce better well rounded personalities with skills that are needed to live life with confidence. I am disappointed that Avi could not get a spot in a Montessori school this year but only because I believe their system encourages the child to challenge his mind. We all do that with our kids but in my case I felt its not very structured or regular (answering Avi’s endless ‘why’ is constantly interrupted by something that ‘has to be done’ and finally ending our open ended conversation with ‘because it just is’ was making me feel guilty ) and that’s something I wanted him to have. I guess we’ll just have to be happy with the preschool program we have right now for him and work a bit more………………oops , I mean have fun a bit more. In the end hopefully I will not be sad that I saved almost $12000 annually as the tuition fee for a Montessori. Now that’s a lot of money, of some we plan to spend on going to the Zoo, Sea World and fun of that sort. To me that’s a better way of learning than looking at the pictures in a book always.

Avi and Dressing

2008-08-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

It started couple of weeks back. My docile child (as far as dressing up goes/used to go) fired me from my job of being his stylist. Every morning he wants to select his outfit which basically means only orange T.Shirt with no. 5 on it or the thick cotton collared long sleeves dark blue striped shirt. If I don’t write the description I won’t get as much kick out of it 20 years later when my memory will be as old as I will be – well I’ll have pictures but then thanks to digital camera, it will be quite a work to locate just that one in the file which is packed with picture CD’s . I usually have about 15 shots of one pose to get that ‘perfect one’ and when I download them to camera, that perfect pose is usually scattered over all 15 of them. In some I have the perfect smile of theirs but the eyes are squinting and if the eyes are perfectly doe….eeish then that charming smile would be replaced by caricature kinds. It makes it hard to delete the rest of the 14. Result – I am sitting on record no. of pictures on CD’s which some day will be discovered by Aliens if we are invaded.

I do tend to digress from the topic of the post a lot. Getting back to it- I usually do 3-4 loads of laundry, mostly all of them the same day and Avi wanting to wear the same two shirts on rotation is throwing my perfectly good laundry schedule out of chart. I thought I could gross him out by telling him that both of his favorite T.Shirts are in the laundry basket probably wrapped with the same shirt on which Neev threw up his food (in my attempt to feed him more and not taking his cues of gagging on every extra bite I was so bent on getting in his little stomach – you think I will be smarter than that since not only he is my second child but also this seems to be a recurring episode on dinner table). Thankfully he did not insist on pulling the vomit covered shirt from the basket which could be an indication that he will not live in a pigsty way later when he moves to a dorm or something (At least I can comfort my heart for now). But what he insisted on was to only wear the robe until I washed and dried that shirt.

And it’s not just the shirt, its matching them with his choice of shorts or pants and shoes too. He is choosing brown shorts with his dark blue striped shirt. Despite my telling him that grey or black will look much better with that one, he wants only brown shorts (Some of it could be genetic since Anurag always needs my advice to co-ordinate colors of his shirts and trousers). It’s not the color combination which is driving me nuts but the weather suitability of his choice. He insists on putting on full sleeves and pants and sneakers when it’s around 80 degrees outside and all he needs is a light shirt, shorts and sandals. Thanks goodness all the sweaters, heavy jackets & boots are out of sight or he could be ready for snowboarding in August. Also it’s a good thing that despite living close to Hollywood we don’t have any style police in the neighborhood, just moms like me who don’t need an explanation for his very unique fashion sense.

Busy week, weekend and a great coincidence

2008-08-26T22:46:00.000-07:00

This past week and weekend passed by like it never came. In a way I like it that I don’t have to think about keeping the kids entertained. If the calendar is full, all I have to do is be their chauffeur. On Tuesday we went to Mariner’s for Bubble day. It was great fun for the kids. Big bubbles, small bubbles, blowing bubbles, popping bubbles –whatever most you can do with bubbles. They also enjoyed the bubbly view from the top floor where it was cooler. Avi kept telling Neev not to crawl towards the gate and Neev was not happy being commanded by Avi. Avi likes to always look out for Neev which is good for me (since he is alarming me every time he catches Neev near the trash or toilet which are seemingly two of Neev’s favorite things ) but not so great for Neev since he constantly hears ‘NO NEEV NO’ from his big brother and finds it very constraining –obviously. As a result, anytime Avi calls out his name , Neev has this scowl on his face like ‘I know you are calling my name and I know it can’t be good” :)

Wednesday was my big laundry day (its one of the chores I don’t mind so much). Thursday I drove the kids to Balboa Beach where we were joined by other friends. Avi did not go in water but had fun digging sand and collecting sea shells with his friends. It was Neev who did most experimenting with sand. It was delightful to watch him as he scooped sand in his fists and then let it fall. He bent himself in sitting position and stretch as far as he could and then gathered sand. He liked to use his hands and feet than the shovel. He reminded me so much of Avi when he had his first taste of sand at 7 months and then I hoped that they don’t grow up and grow out of pastoral pleasures of life, not too soon anyway.

Friday night we went to the Great Park for Salsa Dance Party. Unfortunately for me Avi was more interested in playing with his friends and watching the hot air balloon than shaking his booty. I still managed to stay awhile and watch people groove (combining two of my favorite things ). When Neev and I were walking around , I noticed the board of the Great Park. It’s catch line ‘one park for everyone’ was written in many languages which represent the cultural mix of Orange County. And there it was ‘ek park sabke liye’ written in Hindi. Felt good. I took a picture.

Saturday we went to a birthday party and kids had a blast with “Winnie the Pooh”. Saturday evening we went to Mandir to celebrate Janmashtami (Lord Krishna’s b’day). Sunday we had a potluck barbecue party at the pool after which Avi and Neev took a long late afternoon nap – usually not so good for Sunday evening when we try to wind down early but this Sunday it proved to be the best thing. At 7 PM my Uncle called from Sydney to tell me that My dad’s cousin and his family were visiting somewhere close to our place and passed his no. When I called him up , he happened to be staying next to the same beach I drove the kids on Wednesday (Balboa). He was leaving the next day for India. I was super excited. After a quick dinner we drove down to see them. The last I had seen them was some 13-14 years ago. We spent a lovely evening with them and took a late night walk on the pier. It was great to catch up with them and a great way to end my week.

India's birthday celebration weekend

2008-08-18T22:56:00.000-07:00

This weekend we celebrated India's 61st birthday !

On Saturday Mandir (temple) organized 'Swatantra Divas Mela'. A lot of us were in the spirit with Tri -color clothing and waving Indian flags. It floors me how the volunteers step up to make events such as these a great platform for bringing people together on a land which we have made our home. Amidst food, fun and cultural performances there ran a thread through all of us. People who did not know each other still said ,'happy independence day'. My favorite part as always was to watch cultural performances. As I sat with Avi and Neev and enjoyed the dance performances , a part of my mind raced back in time. Every Independence day, Republic day, School function was an opportunity to perform - folk dances and skits were my favorite and also my forte. I do not remember being an audience in any of the events from school to college. I was up there .....and I remember enjoying it .....immensely. Being on the other side is also fun when all you need to do is relax and enjoy and that's exactly what we did. Overall, it was a fun fiesta at Mandir !

On Sunday we were invited to join Mr. Harry Sidhu, councilman for city of Anaheim to celebrate India's birthday at his elegant old Yorba estate. This evening turned out to be a real treat. My only disappointment was forgetting my camera. As we entered the huge gate guarding his sprawling bungalow, Avi was quick to spot the enormous statues of Dinosaur, Elephant & Giraffe in the driveway. We were led to a big , open area in front of the house where the stage was set up. The whole area was elegantly decorated with Indian theme, tiles with Rajsthani art influence and cushions with batik and tie & dye prints. Something I could not get over was the view of Riverside from there . His house sat on the top of the hill so the whole city was in view. It looked beautiful in the backdrop of Sunset. The ceremony started with the guard of honor to the flags of America and India followed by national anthems of both countries. The councilman delivered a speech honoring our birth nation. The unforgettable part for me and most other people was a performance by 6 very talented girls. They performed the classical form of dancing 'Bhartnatyam' and the theme of the dance was 'Pushpanjali' (opening of the Lotus flower and offering it to The Divine). The girls rocked. It was a 20 minute performance and they did a lovely job of not letting their breathlessness show under their graceful gait and charming smiles. Their costumes, makeup and jewelery ...everything was flawlessly co-ordinated and their talent, admirable. I should mention that equal credit is placed to their Guru, whose calm and eloquent description was just as bit impressive as the jiggle of her student's ghungroo clad feet. It won't be an exaggeration on my part to say that this was one of the best 'Bharatnatyam' performance I had seen so far. To some, it was a show that they enjoyed , to me it was one of the things that make me proud , to be able to say, "that, my friend is a glimpse of India's cultural grandeur for you" !

My experience with fire and tornado !

2008-08-14T00:13:00.000-07:00

Man , I should have posted this one with the earthquake post . Then the title would have been 'My experience with fire, earthquake and tornado' and just by the title of it you would have thought , 'Vow ! Is she trouble or what'. Well I don't know ...may be I am but since you are here reading about it........chances are you like it......trouble aka me :)

Here goes..........

I love California, I love this city and most things about it . It 's very attractive here, even to all the natural calamities it seems. We had the worst fire last year , an earthquake 2 weeks back and now I just read about another tough fire spreading wild in Northern California. I very well remember the scare it gave us last year. It was Sunday and Dushehra day. We had stayed home inside all day and had no clue about the fire (it was all over local news on TV and we don't watch any). Anurag knew thru' the internet but did not have any idea that it was going to hit home soon. In the evening we got ready to go to the temple for 'Ravan Dahan' (Burning of the demon's effigy). Sky looked darker and I could smell smoke. A friend called on the cellphone and asked us if we were okay. Turned out that we needed to be worried about 'dahan', not necessarily of Ravan though. We can see hills from where we live. Drove up the way a few hundred yards and we could see the flames. I could not believe how quickly the sky turned into a black lid and it smelled like a barbecue way overdone. We returned and closed all the windows and doors. Turned on the T.V. and sure enough our county was on fire. The flashing emergency message on the bottom of the screen said 'mandatory evacuations for Portola Springs which is only 8 miles from us. That was it ! We started packing our bags - documents,pictures, flash light, set of clothes, water and food. We decided that it they announced voluntary evacuations for our area, we would be out. We put the kids to bed and sat tight. I could not imagine the state of home owners whom lifetime's savings were about to turn into ashes. I always thought about what it would be like living in one of those houses sitting pretty on hills .....not so much that night. I must have dozed off on sofa because Anurag told me that the wind changed direction but we were not out of the woods yet. Next morning we woke up to a grey dull sky instead of a bright blue and sunny California morning that I am used to. Our porch was covered in soot layer and windows were dusty. The fire kept burning for another few days and was declared as the worst of 2007. It destroyed 1500 homes , burnt over 500,000 acres of land and swallowed 9 lives.

Since we are talking about fires and earthquakes I feel like recording my experience of being in tornado watch too. This was year of 2006 in Ohio. The things I remember - It had been raining hard and wind was something else that day - a tempest. I remember Anurag waking me up in the middle of night because he heard the siren which goes around when you are/could be in tornado's way. I held Avi close to me and we all ran down to the jacket closet. I need to remind that it was a tiny space. Thank God that Avi was/is a good sleeper and did not catch the tension and the stress in my body. I remember feeling terrified hiding in that tiny closet The siren was going on outside. The rain sounded like a bad rhythm of banging drums. After a while Anurag got out and switched the radio on for latest warning. Thankfully tornado did not come. Laying on the bed with Avi beside me I went through lots of thoughts and they were all scattered - I don't remember most of them but there was one which I get every now and then , specially when I see/read about natural or man made wrecks in our world - Being Grateful !

Twenty bug bug

2008-08-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

We have a big round circle of grass in our apartment. Usually kids ride their bikes, scooters and play there. Today we were spending our afternoon there and after a few rounds of scooter riding Avi and his friends (age range from 3-10 years) sat on the grass to take a break. Avi who loves to make up stories came up with something, 'look there is a twenty bug bug'. There was no bug in sight. All the kids turned and asked, 'what's a twenty bug bug' ? Avi goes, 'its a teeny weeny, insy,winsy kinda bug and its called twenty bug bug. If you look hard enough you can find it". The younger crowd seriously started looking for 'twenty bug bug' and the older crowd started to pretend like there really was a 'twenty bug bug'. They started playing and saying, 'hey look there is a twenty bug bug up your shoulder, hands, head'. Soon, it became a favorite game and they were using terms like twenty car car, twenty pool pool, twenty tree tree, twenty bike bike, twenty grass grass, twenty stick stick. It was catchy and they were laughing hysterically and running around. I have a feeling this bug is going to last pretty long :)

Subah hoti hai, Shaam hoti hai, Zindagi yoon hi tamam hoti hai !

2008-08-10T00:38:00.000-07:00

Every morning the Sun rises and every evening it sets ! Just yesterday it shone on my face when I stepped out to reach for the bicycle to hurry to school . I closed my eyes to feel the warmth of morning sun..................... I don't know if I liked the dancing tantalizing patterns of colors against the sunlight and behind my eyelids or I simply wanted to savor the tingling of warm effulgence on my skin....................seems like I took a long journey of that experience (s) because when I opened my eyes, a long time had passed me by, a long long time. My bicycle was not there. I wasn't at the same place. I wasn't going to school. Suddenly --wham!-- I realized it was not a few moments which just passed me, it was a decade or more.......................I looked around - a lot had changed , I went to find a mirror and when I did, I took a good long gaze. I looked dissimilar to me and I felt differently towards...................everything in general. No, I did not go in a coma, I lived my odyssey up close, some moments so fresh and close to my senses, they could still scintillate my mind. I felt humbled by the radiance and the glow the sunshine bestowed on me all this time. I blossomed in it . All this so wonderful.............................so why do I feel melancholic ? Perhaps because literally all of it was just blink of an eye, poetically because so many seasons have passed and of some I might have missed the fickle............not knowing what I missed was delight or disappointment but it doesn't matter..........the point is I might have missed it. I will never know it. I know time will not stop, nor would it slow its pace and shorten the passage but when I close my eyes this time, would it be too much to ask that my fare not be a flash ?

-From a piece I am writing. More to come in following posts , just bear with me if it takes longer, as you know with 2 kids the only time I get for myself is night and on most of them my thinking cap can only go so far as to 'would Avi be bored with waffles or cereal if that's the breakfast choice I give him next morning (4 days in a row)' :)

Fire Ring Extravaganza

2008-08-09T01:29:00.000-07:00

This time Anurag was able to join us as we went to Nature Center for camp fire. We did it earlier this summer but Anurag was working that weekend so it was only half the fun. We did all the usual of the campfire - roasted marshmallows, made s'mores and enjoyed going on the trail and wooden bridges. We learnt that Hollywood is named after Holly shrubs around that area. We enjoyed looking at those attractive, shiny, dark green leaves and large, red berries. We saw massive Cacti plants, huge 2 foot diameter Aloe Vera plants, poison Oaks, Rosemary , Jojoba trees and some other interesting plants and shrubs. I found the Aloe Vera plant very interesting. It had big succulent leaves. We were told that Aloe flower nectar is hummingbird's favorite. Avi loved practicing his balance on the stone labyrinth while I enjoyed looking at the sole house sitting on the top of the hill, wondering about the view from there. When it got dark Neev kept pointing his finger at the moon and stars, saying 'there'.And I almost forgot to mention, when we were singing songs, they asked all the kids to join for 'Old McDonald had a farm.....'. When they asked Avi which animal would he sing for, he replied, 'rattlesnake'. Everyone laughed. You can't blame him as they have put rattlesnake's pictures everywhere mentioning its their natural habitat. He actually enacted it pretty well with the hissing sound :)

Pictures

2008-08-09T01:12:00.000-07:00

So I can upload the pics now. Here we go from last week's fun...

Saturday Summer Party and Sizzling Sunday

2008-08-03T22:31:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Cisco organized summer party at Mason Regional Park. It had Hawaiian theme and the event management company that they hired did a good job arranging it. We enjoyed the food and drinks but the dessert was the best. It was like a fruit medley with marshmallows and coconut flavored creme. It was delicious. I also enjoyed peach tea and kept going back for it since chasing after Avi and Neev was a challenge without getting dehydrated.

They had a lot of games for kids but Avi wanted to do his own thing. He kept himself busy by doing somersaults on the grass and amusing Neev. It was all a lot of fun but my purpose of writing this piece is that when time came to announce the best dressed kids in Hawaiian dress, Avi and Neev had total works without a doubt. Infact they both gave each other competition (it wasn't hard to guess by the applause they both got). Since it was hard to pick a winner, they both won the prize. Avi totally rocked in his orange floral T.Shirt and matching shorts which I also decorated with surf boards and more flowers. With a floral garland and a Hawaiian guitar (also decorated with floral stickers) he looked ready to play Hawaiian tunes on stage. Neev dressed in a red floral shirt and matching shorts and looked adorable with the garland. Even though they were in it, it was my game and I loved playing it :)

We spent Sunday evening at Woodbridge Center watching and rocking to the Rock n Roll Concert. Neev rocked on mine and Anurag's shoulders on the beats and Avi could not get enough of rolling. He watched a piece of dance on 'Step Up 2' earlier and thinks that this is the best form of dancing. Combining that with the influence of gymnastics class he's developed his own technique which is part jumping , part rolling, part falling down on purpose and part sword fighting. Its hilarious to see him do that. I have to remember to go next week since they announced that Indian wedding music and dancing is going to be there. Yoo...... hoo....Balle......Balle.....!

A beautiful morning and Earthquake

2008-07-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

My day started off pretty well. Gymnastics class for Avi and a trip to Yogurt Land afterwards. Avi chose mint chocolate flavor with chocolate sprinkles and I got my favorite mango with fresh blueberries toppings. Neev was happy to share mine. We sat next to the water fountain and enjoyed our yogurt while watching a duck bathing herself in the stream water. After finishing our delicious snack we got up to go but half way thru' to the car Neev's discontent blathering and pointing to the fountain made me decide to turn away and spend a bit more time duck-watching (there was just one duck but she did not seem lonely, as I guessed from all the fun she was having splashing water on herself). It was a beautiful mid -morning afterall and I wanted us to enjoy it. While the kids entertained themselves , I found the 'massage specials' brochure from the Chinese spa in the complex and imagined a day in spa with a friend followed by a cup of tea at Lollicup Tea Zone next door (it would entice any tired mom the way these businesses have set their locations in that complex - spa, tea shop, beauty supply boutique......). As I day dreamed about my spa and chai session with friends, Avi noticed that the duck was missing in the stream. 'Where do you think she went', I asked and his version was ' I think she is taken to the rocky mountains and she is being chased by bats and spiders in a cave. Hurry, Mommy , we are animal rescuers and we have to save her'. You have to give me a bit of genetic credit for his amazing imagination. Afterall we both have fantasies (if you forgot I was woolgathering too just a moment ago ) :) . I suggested that we rescue the duck by going around on the wooden bridge and the fountain, pretending it was his cave. Finally we found the duck hiding behind some rocks in the stream and 'Avi saved the day' by rescuing him from bats and spiders. Our 'mission' was over and we headed back home.

Around 11.40 A.M. I put Neev in high chair and just as I finished strapping him, I felt dizzy, like the ground under me was moving. At the same time the windows in the living room started rattling. Its amazing at what speed your brain thinks ...at first I thought there must be some fixing work going on upstairs but when my T.V. started to shake and I felt some more vibrations under and around me, and the windows kept rattling , it hit me.........................it's an earthquake ! I've lived in California for over two years now and we've had a couple of earthquakes since. I did not feel them since they were during the night (imagine how bushed I must have been that even an earthquake could not wake me). Anurag felt them both the times and not that I wished for it but I was kind of curious how it felt. And now I know ! When it struck my mind that it was indeed an earthquake that I was experiencing, I was totally out of my balance (figuratively). I panicked. All I remembered was Gujarat Earthquake in India in 2001. My mind was racing about how to get my kids to safety. Because I survived to blog about it, you may laugh at me at my crazy thoughts but in that instance how was I supposed to know what was to follow.....another one may be, aftershocks? Who knew? Geologists have been predicting a big one which would wipe half of Northern California, well, may be they just forgot researching Southern California's plates because of all the attention it already gets with its wild fire and all. I mean just last August we survived a mandatory evacuation due to wild fire by just a couple of miles, And now this earthquake ! I seem to be living in an attractive place even to all possible natural calamities. Back to my reaction- I got Neev out of the high chair, held Avi's hands and ran outside bare feet. Avi who also felt strange kept saying ,"Mommy , I need my shoes". I met other people who also got out and when some of them who've been in this 'earthquake zone' for long told me this was just a baby one. I felt kind of sheepish with our feet sans shoes and sorta dislodged demeanor. So, we returned back home. Visibly I was shaken up but took comfort in Avi's almost anodynic offering,'don't worry Mommy, next time I am going to shoo the earthquake with my magic wand'. My imaginative child did not know how much that calmed my nerves. I called Anurag and of course he was not at his desk. Moments later he called back and my fist sentence was,'did you feel that?". Sure enough every one from L.A. to San Diego did.

Its everywhere in the news but I would like to mention that the earthquake was measured 5.4 on Richter scale (Gujarat was 8.2) and was termed 'moderate'. The epicenter of the earthquake was about 35 miles from us. No reports of any serious damage or injuries so far.

So this was my day - a beautiful morning shaken by an earthquake later !

2008-07-28T22:33:00.000-07:00

I took the car for a wash after lunch thinking that would be the light time of the day. Turned out there were atleast 10 more cars lined up before me. Since this was the hand wash and a line operation , I decided to wait up , hoping it won't be too long. When my car was being vacuumed, a whiff of stink alarmed me that there was code yellow (as my husband and I call it when Neev goes number two). I realized that diaper bag was in the car and the car was yet to be soaped, rinsed, dried and waxed . Did'nt I know better what is expected after lunch ....I asked myself and then wondered if I could survive the aromatherapy for another 20-25 minutes. I hoped for it not be a volcano and decided to sit in the lounge (sitting outside at 1 PM with no shade was simply not an option) which was already packed with people, people buying magazines, snacks, coffee, paying for gas and wash, people working on their notebooks, black berries, people bantering on their cellphones, people waiting for their cars to be washed...........Meanwhile Neev was getting uncomfortable . Avi decided to come to his rescue by entertaining him and as he came to bury his head in Neev's tummy to tickle him, he turned away and said as loudly as he could 'Yuck mommy, Neev has gone lot of poo-poo and it smells so bad'. From the corner of my eyes I could feel everyone's glances . Some people probably smiled too on Avi's blooper (those must have been parents). Not sure what I wanted to do with all the attention ,all I said to Avi was,'yes , let's go , change him' and we left. Sometimes that's all you can do (and later blog about it :)

Highlights

2008-07-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

So this is the sequel to the story of haircut. As planned, I did go for the highlights last week. I told Anurag that my haircut post got the most comments so far (3 ???? my friends, if you are reading my blog , I love to hear from you so please add comments and keep adding) and my blog fans are looking forward to read my highlights story and he should not disappoint them. Anurag could reason with me but was not ready to argue with my fans so he graciously agreed to watch the kids while I discussed the shades, tones, pigments , heavy/light weave-in and other analytics of highlights with my color consultant at Studio C (They better send me a gift card or make my next trip complementary .... I can't seem to mention them). Since my hair cut is so short now , it was difficult to get highlights on the sides or back so I chose to put some red on my crown and bangs and color rest of my hair black - close to my natural color. Sitting there, I did think of going wild with purple and pink but a glance on my cellphone screen ,which has pictures of my kids (this time I put my cellphone right in front of me ) quickly reminded me that I could not pull that off. In that moment I also decided to go deep red from bright red. I sipped some tea while my consultant went off to mix some volumes of these shades. After spending a few minutes under processor my foil flowered head was ready to rock and roll. Finally when it was washed and dried, I could not tell if I had any highlights at all . Pretty sure that they were there somewhere I tried to tell myself that I will be able to see it in daylight. So I checked my hair the first thing in the morning and surely I got 'em. My friends told me that it looks good. I think its ridiculous that I am even writing about the hair cut and highlights but actually it was a lot of fun and I totally enjoyed my time at the salon. I am trying to add the picture here (hopefully it will attach...I have not done this before...) so you can check the 'new me' out and people, please.............only positive comments :)

Hair Cut

2008-07-17T22:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, so everyone has had a bad hair day or a week or so. In my case it had been a bad hair phase for quite some time now. Frizzy hair, no shape hair, untamed hair, tousled hair, rumpled hair, ruffled hair...............find the synonym of these in thesaurus and chances are I've lived with it all ..and wait till you say 'who hasn't' because in my case every day has been a bad hair day for last few weeks. So I decided to do something about it. I decided to cut it short, a really really short bob. I've had very short hair style before and then for some time layers and then they they just grew out ......no style for the longest time. Grass is always greener on the other side so with long hair I felt that the short is the cutest chic thing and with short hair I felt that long hair is so feminine and beautiful and you can do much with them....and anyone who has been back and forth between the 2 styles knows how frustrating the in-between phase can be when your hair are neither short nor long .......... hence the long wait for me to decide what I wanted. When I set my mind for a short one, I made appointment with a fancy Salon (Studio C). When I first came to States, I went to JC Penny salon and after that its been Super cuts or Great clips.This time neither one of them were going to do it. I wanted a drastic change and I wanted a lil fuss over my hair. Besides , I haven't had a hair cut in a year and my locks (a very apt description of my hair as they looked completely so)totally deserved pampering (Hello....think about saving money for four cuts in Great clips in a year and then add some .............don't you agree it was in order). So yesterday I went to Studio C and the hair consultant (as they call themselves) went over a couple of books with me and I picked a style which I thought was great . She thought it was cute but wanted to check the texture of my hair (I think) and decided to shampoo and condition my hair before the cut (I already did that at home but who was I to complain if someone was going to run fingers thru' my hair and bathe them). So I changed and let her do her thing. I almost felt asleep listening to music while my crown was getting a bubble bath with warm water and her fingers were massaging conditioner on my scalp. Heavenly I tell you...............You will understand when the only treatment your hair receive is being pulled by your one year old or if he is not doing it, there are many situations when you feel like pulling them yourself. Back to the pampering - my hair were wrapped in a warm towel and I was stationed to get the cut. I was offered wine/tea/coffee (I thought even crossing legs caused angle change of head during a cut , how was I supposed to hold a wine glass and not mess up the symmetry). Anyways, she ran her fingers thru' my hair again , gently shaking them, looked at the style I had chosen, divided my hair in four sections and looked at the style again. This time may be she thought differently because she took the clippers out and did the sectioning again. The cut finally began and I could not wait to see all that hair gone. After the cut she blow dried and put some Aveda paste to give my style textured look just the way in the book. I liked what I saw and then I left. When I looked at the watch in the car, it had been more than 2 hours at the salon. My cellphone had 3 missed calls from home. I called Anurag back and the only thing he said, 'just come home'.

When I reached home, he certainly did not have the reaction I had hoped. Turns out he had been through very bad 3 hours. Avi had a stomach ache and he would not stop crying for me. Neev obviously was very empathetic to his big brother and gave him company thru' out. Anurag was like 'how long does it take to get a hair cut and why won't you answer your cellphone (I did not hear it since it was buried at the bottom of my over sized purse. A dose of Mylicon, lots of caressing of tummy and a dozen book later Avi felt better and dozed off. Finally Anurag took notice of my hair and nodded - a good one after a long time. I told him,'glad you noticed, next week I am going to get some highlights done and usually coloring takes longer than the cuts'. You should have seen his expression - priceless.

I love my hair right now, its just that I am going to wear only dresses (and earrings if I can get Neev to be interested in something more fascinating while carrying him) to offset the look I have above my shoulders. Those of you who are curious to see my new style, wait until I get the highlights ...........I am really going next week :)

Week July 7th to 13th

2008-07-17T21:38:00.000-07:00

Since this blog is going to help me reminisce when I am older, I have to record all things we've enjoyed doing last week.

Let's see .....Monday -gymnastics, Tuesday -water day at Mariner's, Wednesday - puppet show, Thursady -water day again, Friday - playdate with friends. Pictures will help me remind the details so I will skip the narration.

What I want to mention is that when the other day after Neev went to bed, Avi and I lay down together in his big boy's bed and just snuggled . Running my fingers thru' his hair I said softly,'don't grow up so fast Avi' and he said in the very same tone,'No more milk Mommy'.

Also Dora's sneaky fox Swiper's line 'Oh Man' has become his Mantra now a days. I say ,'we can't go to blockbuster to rent your DVD today and he goes ,'Oh Man' . I say, 'its 3'o clock and too hot to swim right now', he goes, 'Oh Man' . I have to find another phrase to help him express his disappointments.

Tunes of heart

2008-07-10T21:47:00.000-07:00

Anurag bought this new MP3 player and after downloading all our collection from 'My Music' on our notebook , he hooked it up with our home theater system. Some upbeat hindi tunes got Avi and Neev shaking their legs on Bollywood's balle balle. And then in between this other song started playing which I recall from 'Sangeet ceremony' of my wedding. Its hard to describe what burst of emotions some tunes can bring. With me it has always been very emotional listening to Hindi songs (of my time in India ) in this country. I still remember when I first unpacked my bags in United States and stacked a few cassettes and music CD's that I brought with me. That evening when Anurag got back from work and we sat in bed listening to some of those, I started missing home terribly, tears rolling and wetting my arms which I folded on my tucked knees. It was snowing outside and I couldn't say it was pretty. After I could take it no longer, I got up and turned it off. I was new here but not newly away from my family. I left home to study at the age of 16 yrs. and I recognized homesickness. This was different..........more intense. I couldn't say if it was the distance or the dark which set at mere 4'o clock every afternoon but I stopped listening to Hindi songs after that. After a few months/years, I heard some new ones (thanks to Sundeep and Poonam who always made the CD's for us), and it did not feel so bad. Given my penchant for dancing, I love catchy dance numbers and now my two music lover boys give me company so I have an okay collection of those. But the tunes of my age and of my heart still quaver the strings within. They are the flash-backs of my life about the people I love, the moments which shaped me, events that permutated me........................and more!

4th of July weekend

2008-07-10T21:23:00.000-07:00

We celebrated 4th of july with friends and Indian Picnic Dinner at Turtle Rock Park. Avi had a great time with friends and getting dirty in sand . Neev enjoyed watching his friend Tanisha toddling and they had some great swinging time together. I brought a huge flask of 'chai' to picnic which was a hit (none was left at the end) and if my friends are reading this - I'd be very glad to bring it the next time ...so let's meet up again :)

Later in the evening, we watched the fireworks from Sandhya and Charan's place and it was a very decent show in exchange for finding the parking one mile away, walking with 2 kids and worst, the return rush. We beat it all and enjoyed the lights sitting on couches.

Next 2 days, we played soccer , went to the pool and had a family movie night. All else was good fun except the movie night. I was so excited about it and we all went to blockbuster to rent one movie for each of us. My pick was 'Enchanted'. Some of it was my over expectation from the movie and some of it was the buddy time Avi and Neev started having, and some of it was Anurag's "I told you it wasn't going to be great shakes' kinda commentary that I was left not so enchanted. But the rest of the week - well, close !

So, you are a Mom......and what else?

2008-07-06T23:54:00.000-07:00

Recently one of my best friends who is also a mother, candidly confessed to me about her feelings in the role of a mom. She loves her kids to death and cares for them impeccably but often feels that she has lost herself somewhere between changing diapers and feedings. Sounds familiar.........? Her confession left me delving into my own heart and it took me back to the day I found out that I was pregnant with Avi. Only a few days in my whole life matched the excitement and joy I felt that day. A lot of other emotions also followed in the next 40 weeks- panic, nervousness among others. Finally, when Avi arrived after 24 hrs. of labor, I went thru' every emotion known to a new mother, predominantly love. We roomed in together but in the night the nurse offered to take him to the nursery so I could sleep 4 hrs at a stretch. Knowing he was in good hands, I tried resting my body which felt like it had gone thru' a hurricane in the last few hours. After 3 nights at the hospital we brought Avi home in a stormy evening. It was partially the time of the day and the bad weather, but mostly it was the realization of being on our own with Avi that I felt a sense of panic. Surrounded by sure and experienced staff at the hospital, the warm feeling I had looking at my 6 pounds bundle of joy,"how much work a tiny baby like him who wriggles from even the snug fit of car seat belt can be" was replaced with,"oh my God, how am I going to take care of him without all those nurses".Well, even though we both survived the first night without the staff and the nights that followed,it sure would have been a whole lot easier if I had one nurse by my side. Someone who could change the diaper and rock him to sleep in those hours when I needed to sleep too. As much as it gave me a chance to bond with my precious, I know that it would not have been lessened by extra help. In the weeks to follow, when I felt better physically and started getting hang of baby related work, I tried to be super human being, doing it all by myself and doing it all. There had been many situations when I felt proud of myself and many more when I felt like I had lost control over everything, when I felt like falling apart and when I felt like I wasn't doing a good job. Despite my wonderful husband's assurance of me being fabulous at everything, it was hard convincing myself of the same thing. I felt, looked,thought as all those women I never thought I would turn into. And I mean deeper issues than not tweezing eyebrows for months, roots showing for weeks before finding time to color them, putting shirt inside-out, leaving toenails without polish until there is an occassion and the list goes on.........Slowly I settled, made peace with a few changes and took charge of the others,until Neev arrived. They say, two times the children, ten times the work (but they forgot to add, hundred times the joy)! This time I am less anxious and I am not in a hurry for anything . Also, this time I am a 30 something woman, struggling with identity issues - do I just want to be Avi and Neev's mom or do I want my life to count for something else as well. I don't know yet......In time I hope to figure it out but until then I am going to try to be content being me.... as a mother. And I hope this for all my friends who are all dedicated moms , who sometimes feel its selfish to think that there needs to be something else to their wonderful self other than being a mom. I think its as normal as it is to feel the overwhelming love for your children. And its perfectly okay !

Lounge Theater and Beach Trip

2008-07-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

This Saturday We went to Bommer Canyon open space. Its only about 5 miles from our place and you feel like you are in wild. There are a few houses on the hills as we enter and the architecture is very similar to my Indian hometown. Open roofs and design of the railings remind me of my childhood evenings when one of my favorite pastime used to be standing on our big roof and watching people coming from both side of the street as far as I could see.

Back on track – we had a little picnic there and enjoyed ‘The Bee Movie” lounge chair theater style. When it got dark, it REALLY got dark. I could not believe we were only 5 minutes away from city lights. Despite the big screen and the big speakers, I could feel the quiet of dessert. They are having a camp-out in a few weeks and I am not sure if I want to go. When Neev started to get fussy, we headed back to the car. After he was settled, we parked behind all the people and in front of the gate (nobody seemed to mind) and enjoyed the rest of the movie drive-in style. It was fun.

On Sunday, finally we made it to the beach. Its funny how Avi,a mid-west born had his first beach vacation at 7 months and Neev, a Californian took a year to get his first taste of sand (literally). He does not really like to put anything in the mouth, especially edibles but with sand it was a different story. He licked it, ate it and bathed in it. It was precious to see sand shining on his eyelashes like tiny golden beads. I am glad I was able to take a picture before hurrying up to shake it off. He mostly enjoyed watching his big brother who had a great time digging up the sand and covering his friends with it. The most favorite part of Avi’s day was to jump on waves and splash on Daddy……………so was mine.

I love Library

2008-06-24T22:32:00.001-07:00

I love public library and my relationship started with it 8 years back when I first came to this country. The first view of Boston where I landed was full of construction machines and dirt (project Big Dig was going on at that time and all that rubble and dirt marred my vision of land of free and the home of the brave). Visiting the giant sized stores and massive malls did not really help make my life even remotely as exciting as it was back in India. It was a Huge change. Change from one culture to another (watching the white picket fences of this dream country or looking at the glitz of Times Square in English movies and listening to Madonna and back street boys is one thing and living in it is another - Oh yes it was a dream come true except that I was a bit unsettled after waking up), change from being a working girl to being a homemaker , change from being someone who used to have two credit cards in her name to someone who had no credit history , could not have one because social security number is not given on H4 visa, change from someone savvy to someone who needed to learn a lot of ropes. Well, this piece about change deserves some serious writing , today I want to use it in context of my love with library only.

When Anurag saw me going nearly crazy with boredom, he suggested visiting library. I got my card and we started our friendship. Anurag would drop me off after lunch and I would spend next four or so hours over there connecting to the world. I wrote long emails to friends telling them about my new experiences, took printouts of the letters to send home ,read newspapers, magazines & books, borrowed DVD's. I also observed the new culture around me - parents, children, teenagers, old people. Sometimes I walked to the park behind it and watched kids and other people. I appreciated what library had to offer and to me it also meant learning about this country and its way of life

When we moved to Milwaukee ,I spent hours studying at the library for my PHR Certification. This library was lovely , a 3 story gorgeous building complete with a coffee shop and a gift store. I enjoyed their vast collection as much as I savored every sip of coffee in their coffee shop in the cold afternoons.

Then I became a Mom and we moved to Lancaster, OH. A small town with a big library. I appreciated the activities of library even more as I started taking Avi for story time and borrowing board books for him. In a mid western small town where it was not easy to find many activities to entertain Avi and the park was mostly packed with snow, the library came to my rescue. We made friends and scheduled play-dates , had lunch and good times.

Now we've moved to California and have access to a lot of libraries within driving distance but I love my 5 minutes drive to the closest one (just get me started on the gas prices :). Today we kicked off summer program at our local library with the performance by Melissa Green. She sang some beautiful songs from Eric Carle's books and kids had a great time. Neev shook some booty too watching Avi who loved doing the freeze dance. Every Tuesday afternoon is going to be full of different activities thru' summer and we have marked our calendar.

Hot...Hot....Hot weekend

2008-06-24T22:32:00.000-07:00

We had some record high temperatures for June this past weekend. By 1.00 Pm the house felt like it would turn into a furnace soon so we cooled off by turning on air conditioning. Sitting all cooped up in a 2 bedroom apartment with its blinds and curtains drawn is not exactly a fun way of spending weekend for kids and for me. Earlier I had signed up for campfire at Adventure Playground but it did not seem like a great idea to be anywhere near fire in already so………sultry weather even if it meant the chance to eat s’mores. But I’d already told Avi about the activity so it was hard to throw water on his excitement of roasting marshmallows on open fire. Finally Mr. Golden Sun decided to call it a Day even though it seemed like the slowest pace ever , we decided to go for campfire. Since this was the only time we got out this weekend, I was hoping this would turn out to be our fun zing thing we look forward to doing all week. Sadly it wasn’t all that great and Avi, when asked if he had any fun, replied, a ‘little bit’.
Highlight of my otherwise not so great weekend – when in the morning I accidently hurt the back of my foot from the fence gate , Avi quipped and said this whole sentence in one breath, “Oh Man, what a shame…I don’t want my mother to get hurt, now I have to call emergency just like the fire chief said, dial 911 if something happened to her”. I just looked at him and started laughing. He started laughing too and said, “looks like you’re not hurting any more Mommy”.

Raspberry competition

2008-06-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

The other day in the car, Neev started blowing raspberries. It was so cute that I had to turn back(I was not driving) and flash him a big smile. Encouraged , he did it again. This time, Avi responded to him by doing a brr......brr.........sound by thundering his lips. Neev answered with some more zest in his bubbles . That was enough to get Avi started his engines and soon we had a full blown froth oozing competition. Neev was so determined to keep up with Avi that it was actually impressive to see a baby put all his energy into blowing raspberries . Yes, it was gross, but also insanely cute. Anurag and I just sat, listened to their brr........s and did not use the 'No' word even once :)

Father's day

2008-06-15T21:44:00.000-07:00

We celebrated father's day at home, listening and shaking to some music on our home theater system (our splurge last year on a set of Harman Kardon and even though it took Anurag a long time to convince me for it, I totally have fallen in love with music all over again listening on this great set up), taking a dip in the pool ,relaxing in the hot tub and walking 3 minutes to order a take-out - just the way 'Daddy' likes it. Laid back and quiet (okay not so quiet as he would really love but well, you can''t celebrate father's day without its fringe benefits :)) !

So here's to my wonderful husband and father of my children- there is nothing more I enjoy than catching him with expressions of love and adoration when he is spending time with kids. Happy Father's day Love !

Wonderfully Chaotic

2008-06-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

Yep, that the chaos can be wonderful, I only learnt from my children and it's become my favorite answer to the question I get from people ,'so how is it going with 2 little ones'. I say its wonderfully chaotic. I am sure all moms get it but for my own record some of it sounds like this -

When as a newborn , Neev needed a diaper change at midnight or in wee hours of the morning, he would cry. That would wake Avi up and he would cry too because he could not take his lil brother creating a ruckus. Not exactly knowing what to do when you have a house full of children's shrieks in the middle of night, Anurag and I would take charge of each one of them and exchange looks between us which said ,'its hard but we are blessed in ways we can only feel....and if it wakes the neighbors ...........well......so be it'.

When the situation reversed after a few months and while running in the park Avi fell and scraped his knee, it was his turn to cry in a pitch which would give an opera singer competition. But wait ..there was Neev, we did not need any singer. Scared by his big bro's crying, he immediately followed it. And this time I was alone and had nobody to exchange glance with, except for a few people staring and thinking God knows what. Rocking Neev on my knees ,consoling Avi and trying to find a bandage in my purse.........all of it at the same time.....well, nothing short of wonderful chaos.

Those hectic evenings when kids are tired & grumpy, house looks like it could win a makeover in parenting magazine's messiest living room to live contest, dinner is yet to be made and I realize that we are out of milk or something I needed to fix a quick meal................all wonderfully chaotic.

I know that they will grow in a blink of an eye and then my heart will yearn for these adventurous little situations. Until then, I am just trying to live and enjoy my wonderful world of chaos.

Serene Saturday

2008-06-08T22:37:00.000-07:00

We started our Saturday early . Finishing with breakfast and showers at 9.30 is remarkably early in this household where everyone loves being nocturnal and likes to sleep in on weekends. I took Avi and Neev for a walk and ran into a neighbor who told me about the 20th Anniversary of signing of Irvine's historic Open Space Initiative. It was being celebrated at Bommer Canyon which is not too far from our place. This city has the most amazing green space, hike and bike trails and native & created open spaces to enjoy passive or active recreational opportunities (I prefer passive ) . It did not take me time to decide that we would all enjoy going there. By the time we got back from our walk , Neev began to get fussy (he woke up early and needed a nap). Anurag (my husband) graciously agreed to baby sit and asked us to go ahead. It proved to be a perfect chance for Avi and I to have some one on one time. We drove to Bommer Canyon to discover the 'wild' side of our city. As I was driving on the dessert dirt road , Avi recognized the cacti on the side and said excitedly 'I saw that in the book we borrowed from the library'. Proud of my son's memory as any mom would be, I lowered the window glasses and savored the fragrant smells of native plants and flowers. It was a wonderful event - they had guided hiking tours , live music for kids (Avi's favorite - old Mcdonald had a farm ee...i..ee..i...o), crafts and also a sumptuous lunch sponsored by the city. Avi liked touching the footprints molds (made from latex) of animals found in the open space and he recognized frog's footprints too. He also loved stamping the animal shapes on paper. We made binoculars out of empty toilet paper rolls and decorated it with stickers, even though Avi decided later that those were for small kids since the holes were sticking too close. He told me that I should think about getting him some big boys binoculars , not the pretend ones. That was fresh, coming from my little king of his own imaginary word where everything is make believe. The highlight of his day was to shake hands with the Fire Chief , getting a badge and the fire fighter's hat.
We enjoyed a short stroll and meandered through the open space while collecting some pine cones and pebbles (to show it to Daddy). I appreciated the beauty of these urban open space lands, majestic vistas and beautiful birds and above all ,my son walking along side enjoying it just as much.
Driving back we looked at the bright blue sky and the hills surrounded by it. I inhaled a deep breath .........it was all so tranquil.

Avi and Bandages

2008-06-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

It all started when Avi was about 18 months old. An enthusiast toddler , excited by wonders of life around him ,ran to catch a bird and fell on the ground. It was nothing really , just a minor scrape but it was his first one and I was hurting more than him. So I picked him up, hurried home, washed it with an antiseptic and covered his boo-boo with a bandage. Don't know what made him feel better, my endless kisses, his lovey or the bandage but he calmed down. Since then Avi and bandages have become friends. Any little scrape or a cut, even the tiniest one which is invisible to my eyes has to be covered with a bandage or Avi's screams would make my neighbors think that I may be torturing him. I mean seriously, more than the hurt my denying of a bandage can drive this child to such pain that manifests into shrieks of highest degrees. So I learnt my lesson and instead of trying to make him a 'man' by shrugging his boo-boo off, I stocked up on bandages, all kinds of them (who knew there were different shapes and sizes and all kinds of cartoon characters) because I go thru' them just as quickly as milk in my house. Quite honestly I don't mind the placebo effect it has. It saves me from lecturing him on how he should be 'tough" because really I don't want to waste in on scrapes and cuts.

There.........

2008-06-04T23:15:00.000-07:00

Neev's been babbling for a long time now and the latest in his vocabulary is pointing his forefinger in the air and saying 'there'. He probably wants me to take him flying . For some reason the finger is never pointing straight or any sideways, always in the air. We don't watch any TV with kids so I wonder where did he see Hilary or Obama making speeches :)

The other funny thing this cute lil man does is a fake laugh which is totally funny . Seriously, its a devil's laugh and goes like ha...ha...ha..ha.... My husband calls him 'Sherkhan' (lion in hindi) when he laughs like that. Usually it happens when there are other people laughing and I think he wants to tell us that he too got the joke. Ofcourse whenever we try to record any of this, he behaves like he is auditioning for a silent movie. Avi on the other hand behaves like we are trying to shoot a car chase. He wants us to record all of his moves which include Aikido, Yoga, Pilates all at once. And yes, whenever there is time to get a family picture, he somehow thinks that his mouth is worth modeling for a dentist's office :)

I never thought that I would take this much pleasure in describing a journey to tonsils or of a roaring laugh but kids - they do that to you. They have the keys to our hearts and the ability to expose us to feelings of such degrees that you don't think you have until you become a mother. What a blessing !

Neev's birthday Party

2008-05-31T22:48:00.000-07:00

Neev celebrated his first birthday. We had a birthday party and he was unbelievably comfortable with a crowd of 10 adults and 8 kids. This is the same baby who had strong stranger's anxiety at 7 months. Today it appeared like he was a socialite. He was held by almost everyone in the party and never cried even once. He enjoyed seeing his other friends - Pranav and Tanisha and also his big bro's friends - Jeeshu,Alan, Mihir and Shruti. He even liked licking his birthday cake (given that he gags on almost every new taste) . We had a great time with our friends and kids had a blast. Happy Birthday Neev !

It's for you Papa

2008-05-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

It was my father's birthday on May 23rd. I called him to wish him happy birthday and the phone call left me with a feeling of wanting to be near him, to celebrate his life. A life which weaved a safety net for his children, for me , for as long as I remember. I've always appreciated in my heart what my parents have done for me but the depth of feelings have a new meaning ever since I became a mother myself. My husband once read somewhere and I don't remember the exact words but it meant that we can never repay our parents in this life , the only way we do it by paying it forward when we become parents ourselves.

Today I just want to say thanks to my father . Its hard to really say that to him on face so I am hoping that writing here can convey to him what he means to me. Among all the other things, one is for teaching me lessons even when he wasn't really preaching and for simply being there for me. I never told him how much I admire his confidence in facing life and its odds. For me if anyone is a living example of 'when the going gets tough , the tough get going', its my Dad. I am yet to see anyone who has taken the challenges of life in its stride. I can never forget when I was around 7 or 8 and that summer the fire swallowed our entire factory leaving it in ashes. We had no insurance for that factory so basically all was lost. No phone available at that time, the bad news came to us thru' someone in the afternoon and I remember my upset mother telling us that we should be quiet and not disturb him when my father got back home. He came late in the night, his face tired and his clothes covered in soot. None of us were sleeping. We lined together,sad and afraid looking, may be even teary eyed. And I clearly remember that his face softened after seeing us. Without even washing up he huddled us and said that 'everything is going to be okay, I am here'. Those words and that tone of his voice have been my strength in a way that he would never know. I try and be that strong parent on whom my kids can depend and lean on and I thank my father for that. Even now, his confidence blows me over. In my last trip to India I was a nervous mother , fretting over 15 months old Avi who was so used to me being around all the times and it made other people doubt themselves if they could care for avi as best as I could. My Mama & Mami (my mother's brother and his wife) wanted to take us out for dinner and I was not sure if Avi would be up for a a late dinner. My father said he would stay back and put him to bed. I thought that was a bad idea because Avi would never go to bed without me. He just put his arms around me and said 'I will take care of him'. It was the same assuring tone . So my husband and I went out to dinner without Avi (for the first time since he was born. I kept waiting for the phone to ring, summoning me back to home but the phone never rang and when we came back home, I witnessed the most lovely sight - my father and Avi sleeping, their heads touching together. I knew the flash would wake him but I still took the picture. I have a lot of stories like this and I will be writing again. Today I just want to say to him," I love you and I miss you.

Daddy, hold me tight !

2008-05-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

Like a lot of other families, we have a family bed. Despite our efforts to make Neev sleep in his crib and Avi in his bed thru' the night we still end up piling in the family bed.

Neev's had cold and cough for past 3 days and he would not leave my arms. It was getting difficult to get any rest in the same bed with Avi and Neev. Thankfully I was able to convince Avi to sleep in his own bed for two extra books .

The next morning my husband told me that Avi climbed up to him in the middle of the night and whispered to him "Daddy hold me tight, I can't sleep". (I have to add that my sensible child did not come to Mommy knowing that his brother was sick and Mommy needed to take care of him). Daddy obliged happily and secured him in his arms until he fell asleep.

We can't wait for our children to become independent, do everything by themselves and yet it feels great when once a while they run to our arms seeking comfort. I'd like to think we still have a few more years until Avi and Neev don't need to climb in our arms and say "hold me tight".

The Cherry Pit

2008-05-24T21:24:00.000-07:00

As a mother one of the things that fills your heart is to watch your children doing something for the very first time, mastering something or simply trying a new task. I try not to miss those 'firsts'. This is about one of those.

So far Avi has been eating cherries in a way I found frustrating. I just told him once to be careful with the pits. As a result the cherries were bitten from around the pit like a mouse has nibbled on them. Almost half of the cherries would waste like that and if there is one thing I dislike , is to waste food so I tried many times to show him how he could nibble on cherries and then roll them in the mouth to spit a clean pit. So finally my boy decided to give it a try. He rolled the cherry in his mouth for almost 15 minutes and then came running to me with the cleanest pit I've ever seen. "Mommy, look, I did it. Here is the pit............"He said excitedly . And he finished the sentence with his usual "look how big I am Mommy !"

My Gosh, I live for that gleam in his eyes , that pure smile , that pride he takes in his independent actions. And for some reason, I feel like I did something big too........I taught him to eat cherries without swallowing the pits.

Neev

2008-05-10T23:47:00.000-07:00

Neev is going to be a year old. A typical baby, nothing like his older brother who always had a reflective look on his calm face. Neev is calm too and a happy baby but his eyes have that mischievous twinkle and his squeals are high pitched when he spots Avi running around him. He thinks that Avi is chasing him or playing hide and seek with him. Anticipation of being tickled gets this guy going. He is so beautiful , my eyes can not take it all. Kissing him is never enough and pictures don't do justice to his cuteness. He likes to comfort himself with his hand on his mouth in a singing tone. That's usually a sign for a nap. He is totally in awe of his big brother and likes to watch him do all the stuff that seems fascinating to him. Loves music and starts to move his bottom up and down whenever his favorite tunes are playing. His favorite animal is duck. He can not stop quacking if you ask him what does the duck say. He is our little parrot. At 11 months he can say woof woof, cow, dog, duck, quack, dadda, baba, hi. He is already clapping his hands and loves to wiggle and show his fingers on the song "I have 10 little fingers". He can actually make a fist when I say 'I can shut them tight' :) Its so cute to watch. His favorite songs are 'wheels on the bus' and 'if you are happy and you know it".
Things he does not like - being on his tummy (never liked it), not being picked up when he wants to.
Like all babies , he loves to be out and about in the world, touching and feeling everything his little hands can grab. He is a joy of our lives and seems to know it :)

Avi and Neev together

2008-05-10T23:28:00.000-07:00

Avi's growing up so soon. He is my wise soul. At 3.5 yrs he's already taken the role of being a big brother very sincerely. As he says 'Neev is HIS BABY'. I've not known any child this sensitive and with such high emotional intelligence. Today as Avi was playing the role of Picasso, painting on his wristband , Neev wanted to grab the corner of his paintbrush. Avi ever so gently explained to Neev, "oh no, you can be poked by that Baby". I could not help but smile at his fatherly gentle tone. He is so proud of being a big bro, always looking out for Neev, telling me when he thinks Neev is hungry or thirsty. and yes, he is the first one to hear when Neev is waking up from his nap :).

Mother's day 2008

2008-05-10T23:16:00.000-07:00

Year 2005 ,I became the lucky one to celebrate mother's day. Year 2008 the joy has doubled. Avi and Neev complete my world, my life. Everyday they bring joy to my heart, some of which is likes of something which can only be experienced , not be told in words. Every night when I put them to bed, the feeling of being a mother takes me over. Being their mother has changed me as a person. Someone I did not know existed in me. It's not a surprise for many of us who are changed after motherhood . For one, I can say about myself that I never ,ever thought of myself as someone who would (and love to ) dedicate all my time to planning a nutritional meal, a play activity, going thru' the library's recommendation list for kids books or here's the best part - picking out outfits for them (I know that doing it for girls is more fun but hey my love for clothes and fashion has to show somewhere so I am costantly picking out latest fads for my boys). Basically all I am saying is that most mom are chefs, teachers,playmates,designers all at once. It has the rewards and frustrations like no other job because I am certain that in my life I would never have anything this personal and this close. I know that I speak for most mothers so here's to us - Happy Mother's day !

May 2nd 2008

2008-05-03T00:04:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things is to watch Avi and Neev interact. It's precious when they are trying to up each other by copying each other's voices. The other day there was a whole bubble blowing competition in the car . It was noisy but Anurag and I loved hearing the fun sounding from the chaos. Today it was almost like opera singing competition . It's sweet how Neev sings in his high pitch and Avi catches on the tone.

Avi is a sensitive soul. He is smart and loves to talk. You'd think that he did not notice or did not hear but he does it like a sponge. His reasoning is amazing. When we explained to him that grown-ups need to be addressed as Mr. or Ms. , he quickly said ,'so daddy is Mr. daddy and mommy is Ms. mommy' :)

Neev is a typical baby, charming, chubby cheeks and cute as a bunny. He gets all excited when Avi is running around him . He thinks that his big bro is going to chase him and catch him. His squeals are precious. One of the things he does is dance on his bottom when he listens to music. No matter where he is, on the high chair or in my arms or on the floor, music gets this baby going. Anurag has somehow figured out two songs from Enya's album which would help him shake his booty and drift off to dreamland (ever seen a baby who likes to dance and sleep at the same time).

A perfect day !

2008-05-02T16:13:00.000-07:00

I heard about art of blogging on NPR on my way to playground with kids. I always believed in writing journals and kept some but it was umm......supposed to be found after I was dead. Well, that's how I at least thought.....felt. After all, it contained my bare thoughts, feelings and I don't know if I ever want anyone to take a peek inside my head, heart and judge. So, it felt odd that people would keep online diaries, worst even that they would like others to read. But as I read more, thought more and truly blogging is a powerful tool, to reach out to world or in my case to vent :) if someone is listening. So here I am , for family, friends and anyone who cares to read. I plan on writing anything and everything. Not sure if I am ready to go to the extent of honesty
with which I wrote my good old paper diary but who knows....................
So here I go with my description of a perfect day I had with Avi and Neev. It was start of spring. and one of those days which invited you to step out and check out
your tiny existence in the giant universe. Kids had music class which was a perfect mood setter so we headed to the park. Neev's love for ducks led us to pack some bread and as we were feeding them for the first time I noticed the colors of green and blue on their necks. It wasn't beautiful beautiful but they were shades of deep and something I never noticed on ducks before. I asked
Avi if he wanted to play with other kids or go on the slides. Given his nature I knew he was going to opt for a walk with me but I made sure that I asked him first - may be he would surprise me one day. So we started walking and crossed the wooden bridge over the water stream. Neev in the stroller , ignoring the beauty of nature was howling. It was his nap time. I took him out and rocked him gently hoping he would fall asleep and actually he did (as I said it was a perfect day). I put him
back in his stroller, put the canopy over and covered with blanket for extra shade. We could hear the sound of water pouring into the stream and for some reason it sounded like music. Avi and I
followed it and I showed him the water pipe from where the water was pouring. Avi is a nature's child, collecting pebbles, sticks, feathers and whatever catches his fancy outdoors. He was hooked and wanted to sit there and listen to 'water' . We listened to 'water' quietly until Avi caught butterflies flying and started running after them. I stood there watching him , his lean and long self jumping in excitement and I thought 'he is perfect'.............'this day is perfect'. I always liked this park but that day I loved it. I loved the manicured green pastures, the hills surrounding the park, trees and birches and hold on....................there was even a rainbow.
I put my sunglasses on Avi's eyes and asked him to look at it. He was happy and I was thrilled.
It was nothing I did but it was like everything I wanted.

Lucky for Neev, it was a short nap - I picked him up and let him feel water, leaves and soil.
There was no one at that side of the park . It was just three of us, inhaling fresh air and savoring nature. I did not want this to end . For some reason I felt lucky, humbled and proud - all at once.
It really was a perfect day.

Steel Magnolias

2008-01-13T21:50:00.001-08:00

Steel Magnolias