Puneri Pune

I already did the Mumbai trip update, but before that we went to Pune to Cubby's Dadu n Daadi's place and what fun it was!

Before the actual trip, leme tell you kids ALWAYS foil your best laid plans. We booked an early morning flight. By early, I mean EARLY. 6am. This means that we have to leave home by 4am considering airport is about 50kms away. We ofcos firmly believed that Cubby will sleep through the trip and get up only by the time we reach Pune at around 730am. But our son must be Suryavanshi considering he was up at 330 when we were trying to change his diaper and was up being his cute self at that ungodly hour. He actually thought we will find it adorable if he runs away while putting on the diaper! Geez!

The cab came on time and he must have slept for about 10mins in the 45mins trip and was again up and about at the airport. He was running wild all over the place and just enjoying the space and even more I am guessing, our stunned faces! The flight was pretty ok and we were home soon. Cubby hardly took any time warming up to his grandparents. The BIL and SIL with their kid were there too! So catching up was done till they left in the afternoon.

Enjoying first "bed" tea in Pune!

The great Indian Phamily!

Soon we were finalizing menu and other plans etc for the vaastu shanti puja (sorta house warming) planned for the following Sunday. Since I am a Maharashtrian, the responsibility of confirming all the arrangement in Marathi was left to me. I did a good job of it! :p Even managed to get a cot on rental for my grand father since he cant sit for such extended periods.

Nobody was spared from doing some odd-job!

Didn't I say NOBODY! MILs doing her bit!

Next day was spent in getting the house cleaned. MILs is a task master and made sure that the tiles and doors got polished and everything was in shape for the Puja. We had carried our lunch since she was quite sure that work will take at least 4 - 5hrs. So we had a picnic of aloo parathas and achaar in the empty flat. Cubby had a whale of a time seeing so much space and kept running around the entire time.

Happy faces after work done and a day well spent. In the lobby of the new house.

We went for dinner to this pretty place called Khaana, Peena, Jeena close to home. Lot of food was hogged and conversation had before turning in for the day. MILs also managed to to convince her tailor to stitch coupla salwar suits for me in one day. He actually did a pretty good job of it and two dress materials that will lying with me from Nov 2007 are now in dress form. Yay!

Us performing the puja as a couple. Cubby completes the picture perfectly! :)

Sunday the Puja happened. Mummy (MILs) had arranged an awesome Panditji who did the puja in Arya samaji way. The puja was short and rather than droning on Mantras for hours without explaining the meaning, panditji picked some important mantras and actually explained it meaning. He also peppered the puja with day to day anectodes, mythological stories and there wasn't a dry eye in the room by the time he finished. It was totally beautiful.

Most of my relatives came late thinking it will be least a 3hrs affair! But i was happy to have all loved ones under one roof and felt really blessed. This was also our way of making sure we meet so many of our folks who stay in Pune without going to everyone's place because there was no time to do it!

Cubby with his great-grandfather who was thrilled to see him! He is 91yrs old!

We managed to go to my grandpa's place once and had dinner with him and my kaka-kaku. Kaku as usual went ballistic with cooking and even made besan laddus to take home. Cubby had an entire laddu for the first time! The evening was well spent in that gorgeous house.

Oho! Aur kitta time lagega saare laddu banne mein?! :p

Mera toh laddu se hi pet bhar gaya!

Daadu and Pota wearing same combo! Same smiles!

By now it was already time to go to Bombay and the trip ended even before it started! But then no number of days are enough when you are going home. Cubby was totally enamoured by Daadu's ponytail and Daadi's cooking by the time we left.

Daadi! Mujhe bhi toh naashta do!

Thanks Mummy for arranging that lovely puja. Am sure someone else couldn't have done half a good job at such short notice. Thanks Papa for being your usual fun self! :)

Heres some more pictures!

Cubby n daadu having fun in the colony park!

I know i am fat and cant wear a saree! :p Both the sets of parents!


Cubby lolling on Panjoba's (great grandfather) bed till he arrives!

He took my bed away, i flicked his walking stick!

No way I am giving it back people!

Teary eyed blessings and hugs followed the Puja.


Am so glad everyone made it! :)


Glad to be rid of the saree for post Puja chilling! :p


Please to ignore "bai" looking mother and just notice Cubby's cute n fake smile!

welcome to adulthood!

Isn't 18 supposed to make you old enough to vote and get a license?! Cubby turned 18months yesterday and he is already such a grown up l'il guy! I did his post just 20days ago, so I really don't know how much fodder I have for this one, but heck, it's a tradition I wanna follow as much as I can. Till I can!

So here goes my sweetheart!

You talk CONSTANTLY. I mean there is just no stopping you anymore. Just yesterday you made your first "sentence" by saying keep it and this morning you said Give me! Phew! How do you remember just about everything we say and do?! If not words, its gibberish, but there isn't a moment of silence with you around! :D

You love pointing to things you have learnt to show you KNOW! So nose, chin and chashma (chamma) is touched all the time. You keep pointing to objects and people in the book too. And more often than not you are right.

The new body parts learnt are elbow (ebbow), palm (pamm) and feet (feett). I didn't know you knew which are your feet and was pleasantly surprised and impressed.

You absolutely LOVE dancing now. I mean you always did, but it was pretty much limited to hand movements, now we get to see feet moving along with the hands and an occasional bum shake too. Its so totally cute. Every time I go to plug in the hands free so that we can listen to radio on my phone, you go Nusee (music)!

You have now started understanding your senses. A spicy thing eaten is followed by the word Teeka or a hot touch makes you say Garam or Bisi immediately. Nimbu is khatta is also a familiar term by now. The other day you were climbing stair and held the railing for support and exclaimed Bisi (hot) sending us into peals of laughter! You are such a nautanki!

And yes, the climbing of stairs that started last month is a totally loved activity now. We are more than happy to NOT carry you up three floors. HERE"s how you do it! :)

You have become quite religious now. We see you standing in front of the Puja room and starting a conversation saying "Bhagbaanjeee!" It so adorable. You keep saying gampati Morya and Ganesha. These days you sit with Papa to light an agabatti (agarbatti) every morning. Papa says a cute prayer for you saying "Bhagwaanji mujhe buddhi do, shakti do. Mujhe accha baccha banao taaki main sabki madat kar sakoon" and the works. You just sit and listen, quite amused! :)

Namaste is not so uncommon anymore! You either fold your hand (in your own weird way) or just say Namaatte. Sometimes its both or neither! :) Handshakes are offered on rare occasion too.

You initiate your own games sometimes now and don't mind yanking your mother's chain. You insist on calling a cat bhoo and then top it up with a super naughty smile that says "Do what you can!' And every time I tell you it's a cat, you say Bhoo even more forcefully. i would have believed it was genuine confusion if i didn't get the SAME smile everytime! :p You do the same thing for Horse and Donkey!

You recognize a lot of animals now. Some of it gor cemented by our visit to Bannerghatta national park and that deserves a seperate post by itself. You love Zebba and Hippo. Elephant is called Eyetaya, dunno by what logic. You also point to Sea Otter saying c otta. I didn't know that before the book! :p

last month I was telling you your name and you almost got it. Now you confidently answers Gabbi Je when asked what is your name. And we though Kabir would be a simple name to pronounce! :p But I loved the fact that you associate the questions with the answer.

From putting bartans in the sink and clothes in bucket you now throw kachra in the dustbin. Not the best place to put your hand, but you are learning to do it pretty propahly!

You love chocolate. You like dark chocolate too. You share my 85% dark Ghiradelli Squares! The moment you see one in my hand a chant of chocetay starts. You now say bedde when you say bread in our plate and if in a good mood have some too.

You quite like doing video chats now and went ballistic screaming Ajoba when we spoke to your grandparents recently. You are very amazed by the fact that you can see them and try and touch their faces to point to their nose etc. Occasionally a neighbouring kid would be there too and you remember them so well.

You keep pretend calling someone or the other on our phones. Mostly it's Amma or ajoba. It's so much fun to see you talk so seriously holding the phone on your ears.

You want to try doing everything on your own especially wearing socks. You give up too easily though! :p

Potty training is finally being attempted a little more earnestly. You now tell us Pattty with scrunched up face, so high time we start making use of this. Telling us when you wanna pee seems a few months away. Can other working moms pls tell me how they toilet trained their babies? Amma doesn't seem to take it as seriously as we would like her to!

Feeding you is little better now. Major distractions are still needed. Plus you not the one for passive ones like TV or story! So we rack our brains everyday about something you can do sitting in a place while we shove the spoonfuls down. Let's see how things go.

You ask for "Goddi" a little too often now that you can say what you want! :p Major crying happens on refusal but I am hoping "its just a phase!" What would parents do without this phrase?

You can now recognize and say necklace (neckk-laace), earings, rings (ringa) and bangles (banga)! You love saying Paisse, we dunno why. You grin when you say Bhaisaab and say subzi like saabji! :p There are so many more words you have started saying that I don't even remember them anymore. We see you try to repeat every word so earnestly and they all sound like music to our ears.

Oh! And you have finally started to share! You don't look too happy doing it, but a request saying "Please give it to whoeva," you almost always handover the said thing to the other kid. You call yourself Goobaa (good boy) after that! You can be a brat sometimes, but thats normal I am guessing.

All in all, you are a complete joy my love! What do you have in store for us this month you big boy? 18 months and all! An year and a half! Already speeding towards the really big 2! :)

have fun dude! :)

PS: Am too tired to add pictures after THIS post! So make do pls! :p And i have given the link to a video! So that should make up!

The "Cool" Quotient!

First it was Suma and then Art who tagged me tell you all whats on my fridge who by nature is indeed a magnetic personality et al. My fridge aint pretty like both these ladies. But I have some stuff I quite like!

While on the fridge, might as well get done with the nostalgia factor of it. When we got married, M was staying a teeny one room kitchen house with not even a gas stove in place. We got that as soon as we moved to Bangalore post honeymoon, but there was no fridge or washing machine which are so de facto these days. Considering the huge size of our house and the princely salaries we both earned, there was no question of buying one.

And then, our landlord offered us an old fridge and an ancient washing machine. This was meant to be shared by our neighbours who were a pair of bachelors and were very good pals of M. Soon we were like one big happy family and we decided that it would be better to have fridge n machine at their place and thats what we did. We shared the electricity bill with them and kept using both the things as and when we needed. It often happened that we would keep leftovers in the fridge, thinking we can eat them in a day or to and would find out it all been eaten up by the kids! :)

We bought a fridge an year later when we moved to this bigger house where we currently are and first magnets came when M's bro gifted us a couple of photo magnets! :) They are still there and still the favourites!

Then just a few more got added and here go the pictures! :)

The first view! The top of our fridge is also loaded! :p The horse / giraffe looking thing belongs to my MILs and was supposed to be some ancient spoon holder! :)

The top left corner and the one diagonally opposite are the photo magnets gifted by the BIL and SIL. Right side top shows that we have a Simpson's fan in the house. It Bart Simpson saying IAY CARUMBA! The bottom left has balloons that were a part of a greeting card we bought for someone. So I flicked this and sent rest of the card! :p I love how bright they look and the colour scheme goes with rest of the stuff! And two in the centre are one that M got from US and another of Roma that his cousin got from well, Rome! :)

Thats the top of the fridge. Those are Halloween things M had picked on one of his US trips. And the grey thing behind is stabilizer which has that cute showpiece gifted by M's cousins when we had visited Delhi! They weren't even earning then and bought it from their pocket money and thats why is even more special! :)

The photo frame says San Francisco, but the picture is of sadda Taj Mahal. This was taken during our trip in 2007, a week after we had found out that I was pregnant! :) The miniature of Leaning Tower of Pisa was gifted to us by M's mausi who did Europe trip recently. Our Amma broke one part of it! :(

And the piece de resistance! The magnet at the center? This is what it says. I love it totally. It's just so true and I gave M an extra hug for just how cool he is! :)

So this is what my fridge says! :)

I tag Usha, Mamma-Mia, Dee and Swati. Tell us the cool quotient of your fridge! :)

Jeevachi Mumbai!

Bombay holds a charm almost no other city in India can even dream of. Even recent terror attacks notwithstanding. I remember so many of M's relatives came for our wedding because it gave them a chance to visit Bombay. Having lived there almost all my life, meant we take most of the things for granted.

This time when we visited Cubby, we wanted to show him all the things that were special to us and otherwise. With not too much time on hand we managed just bit of South Bombay and Juhu Beach. Cubby had a brilliant time and though I don't know how much of it he will actually remember, I was happy to be there with him. Doing the boat ride at Gateway that I did as a kid, shopping at Colaba which was a much looked forward thing in college and working life, Marine Drive where friendship and courtship happened and ditto for Juhu Beach. I was amazed at how familiar it all felt and what fun it can still be especially when you look at with the wonderment in your baby's eyes! :) I loved pigging out on Pav-Bhaji and Bhel Puri at the beach!

Also when I gave birth to Cubby, there was a flurry of excitement in my building. They all knew and loved my family and me, and now they had welcomed Cubby with open arms and love I cannot even imagine. After that everytime Mayunk went there the kids would ask "Cubby kab aayega?". This time when Cubby reached there he was smothered with their affection for him. Kids aged between 2 - 10 kept him entertained and enthralled. They generously shared their toys with him, tried to include him in their grown up games and generally tired him out every single day! :) It was also very humbling to see Cubby play in the terrace I used to as a kid and I couldn't help but count my blessings.

The grandparents ofcos went absolutely ballistic! NOTHING can make them happier than their grandchild. You might have won a Nobel Prize, but for them the grandchild is the biggest achievement ever. Its like seeing the completion of circle of life, I guess. My mom kept talking to him, playing with him and enjoying every bit of his antics. My dad became a champ at putting him to sleep as he showed him crows and kabootars from the balcony. Their love is so intense and beautiful... it's a treat to experience it! :)

The icing on the cake? My brother made it from the US. He gave the parents a shock by knocking on the door at 330am. Only M and me knew he was gonna make a trip. The timing was so perfect. Cubby got to know his Mama better and can now recognize him from photos! :) It was so much fun seeing them together and the brother is pretty good with kids. The family was complete in every sense of the term! :) Thanks for making it dude!

I will let pictures do rest of the talking!

Gorgeous South Bombay

The kid was totally obsessed with his "Baoon"! At Gateway of India


At Gateway with Bro n me. Don't forget to notice the Baoon! :p

In the boat that takes a round at Gateway. Don't you love it when lights play such lovely tricks?!

Mommy itta saara paani!. Cubby thrilled with the new experience.

taking a break and snacking at ever gorgeous Marine Drive.

Christmas Party and Kids!

L'il Santa on Christmas Day! His "Aaji" got the costume et al.

Kids enjoying the food at the Christmas Party.


Santa refused the beard ofcos. But tried to put on the cap himself!

Enjoying the attention and the fun!

Stop taking pictures. When is a kid supposed to play?!

Even Goa wasn't this much fun! Juhu Beach!

Getting the feel of the beach walking with Mom and Aaji

Wanna bet WHO is the asli monkey?! :p


Gaadi! Gaadi! was the chant as Cubby enjoyed his first amusement ride!

Ofcos I asked if he was sure he wont make me get off due to excess weight! There's lil Cubby on the seat too!

With his Papa who was mostly the official photographer!

New word learnt and object liked that evening?! Tooppee! :)

The phamily Photo! And yes, a baoon was obviously bought here as well! :p

The Phive Star Experience

Cubby being serenaded with Twinkle Twinkle!

He lost interest pretty quickly after being totally fascinated initially!

The Grandparents (??) who give parents run for their money when it comes to looking young and their enthu and energy levels!

With Mama, wearing the Tee he got from his Univ.

Random Notes

The couple cooking up a mean chinese lunch with errr... Knorr Make - a - Meal!

Playing it rough and laughing away with his Aaji!

It was such a beautiful n perfect trip! Hope we can do it soon again. Make some more amazing, remake old connections and forge new bonds! :)

thank you HELMET!! I think...

Now now! Before you start imagining I have started my new year with a bang of another sorts, let me assure you alls well with me Head to Toe (except thinning hair n chipped nail polish! and the excess weight).

This is not about how the helmet saved my life, though I know it does a good job of it and recco one and all to wear one if you riding a two wheeler. Pillion rider doing it should not be laughed at and called paranoid either. I think it's nice to value your own life at all times. Only then can you take care of others. But then I digress.

Remember I had spoken about Cubby's "Hemme" (helmet) obsession in his 15month update? Well, it's still pretty much there and sighting of one is equivalent of being in paradise. M keeps talking about taking him to a helmet shop JUST to see his reaction. Yeah! Another one of those cheap parenting thrills. We are yet to do that and frankly I have quite warmed to the idea! :p And there I digress AGAIN.

So this morning, as soon I started getting ready for work, Cubby started crying and clinging to my legs. Amma took him to the balcony to show him dog, babies and whatever else catches his fancy so that I can get ready and leave on time.

I was set to leave and came out to say Bye to Cubby. As a principle, I NEVER leave hiding from him or by distracting him. I make sure I say a confident and cheery bye and hope that it will reduce his separation anxiety to an extent. We don't want him to think that we disappear everytime he looks away.

Now that he understands we go away and he doesn't like it, a good-bye smile doesn't come easily. He seems to say "I am not buying your smile! I KNOW you are leaving me and going away." Today also he had his grumpy face - not allowing it to break into a smile inspite of all my attempts. So then I said him "I will go down, wear my red helmet and say bye to you!"

I had uttered the magic word. My son who was till then sulking because I was going to office, physically pushed me towards the stairs, pointed towards them when I didn't move much and said a loud n clear Helmette! Both Amma and me burst out laughing and ofcos Cubby had to join in too. I could hear everyone's laughter including mine till I reached ground floor.

As I wore my helmet and waved to Cubby I could hear a faint helmette and saw a short wave by when an autorickshaw and some kids had already taken my baby's attention away! :)

So much for missing his Mom, huh?! :D

New Year and Old Memories!

So, Happy New Year to all of you! As another year goes by, you are wished dreams fulfilled, warm hugs, true love, lasting friendships, success and loads of time with your loved ones! :) Yeah, this is also the sms I sent and some pals in blogosphere must have got it. Though it sounds like a forward, leme assure you its original! So I am always amused when I get my sms back from some friend! hehe!

I have to do posts on our Pune and Mumbai trips, with pictures ofcos (considering thats all you guys come here for!:p), but I need to be in a different mood for that! Just got some mails from my dad with scanned copies of some our old pictures and I thought might as well put some of MY childhood snaps too! I mean why should Cubby get all the "sooo cutes!" hehe!

Before that leme just share some snippets with Cubby

Scene 1:

Other day when i was again stuck at work till late because one particular client activity that had been delaying for almost the entire week.

M - So when you coming home?

Me - I dunno. I am stuck!

M - Antiquity, again?!

Suddenly I hear a voice pipe in! (M has kept the speaker on)

Cubby - Aaantikooti.

We laugh like crazy and ofcos make him repeat it zillion times! Then,

M - Say Signature!

Cubby - Sinneture

Me - Now say Daaru!

Cubby - Daauuu.

M - Bolo! Bewda

Cubby - beddaaa

Yes! We are like that only! We get cheap parenting thrills by making Cubby repeat stupid stuff! But we had a good laugh! Cubby too. And dontcha worry. We didn't do the daaru and bewda thing again! But hearing him say Aantikooti is just too cute to resist! :)

Scene 2 - We are sitting and having our breakfast. Cubby as usual say Deee (give) and takes a bite of whatever we are eating. As soon as he bites it, he goes Teekha (spicy!) with appropriate sounds and expression! How the heck did he know?! :p

Scene 3 - Its chhutti, so I am bathing him instead of Amma. I pour first mug of water and I hear a little admonishing voice saying Garam! And yesterday he used Kannada equivalent and whined "Bissi!".

When did my baby grow up so much?! :)

And now leme share some moments from my childhood! Very few pictures I realise now. On next trip home am gonna get all of em! :) Ofcos they are all faded and not so clear, but memories are precious, in whatever form! nahi?! :)

Guess which one is me?! Clue: Teeth! :p

So did you get it right?! Thats me with my Mum n Dad at my Grand pa's house in Pune.

It was my birthday and all those kids were my friends in Pune since I visite my grand parents at every available opputunity! I am in touch with the only guy in the picture. I do love my frock and to think my parents let me choose from pretty early on and I bought some seriously horrid stuff!

Again in Pune. The toothy smiles started pretty early on and almost never stopped i guess!


Thats my bro and cousin and me doing the aarti for Bhaidooj.

Exchange Mela: Me wearing Mom's jeans and shirt and Mom wearing my skirt and blouse!

This is at Aurangabad during new years. I guess, I had started being the awkward teenager and my bro loved to make weird faces for EVERY picture. When he was little younger he wanted to pose with some toy or the other and yeah the tongue wagging! :p I started fitting into Mom's clothes for a bit. But that affair was short lived as my mom is very thin and has a small built. So now I don't fit into her clothes and she has to wear mine after altering them to make em smaller! Sigh! Also remember the fights that started with Dad around the time jeans came along about merits of looooong lasting "Abhyankar" chappals from Kolhapur with Jeans and why do I need another nicer pair of footwear! :p

This is Feb 97! TWELVE years ago almost!

This was our standard picture of four before going out for dinner on someone's birthday. This was Dad's birthday. Bro and me started picking places to eat pretty soon! It was quite an occasion! :)

Another one of Dad's birthday!

I think both of us (bro n me) were trying to make sure that we don't open our mouths while feeding cake to Dad! :)

Had fun seeing these again. Earlier everytime we got bored, we used to pull out all the albums and see old photos. We did that again this time when I went home. It's always fun to see how we and others around us have changed over a period of time. I wonder how will Cubby react to his parent's old pictures. Will he also laugh at our clothes and hairstyles, the way we laughed at our parents?! How many stories will I remember to tell him? Will he also see our wedding album and ask "Why wasn't I invited?"

We had decided that we will keep printing our digital snaps as well, because watching them on computer is like reading an e-book. You can see the pictures alright, but they cannot be a warm and cozy family affair albums are. We have lot of albums, but we haven't printed new ones in quite sometime. Should do it soon!

Are you guys ok with pictures just on computer? Whats your nostalgia factor?! :)