Rakhsha bandhan

I have a cousin that lives in the same city and they have two boys 8 and 3..so ofcourse we had to tie rakhis...it was fun to doll up little thumki and take her last night.

I made kalakand, the easy way with badams, ricotta cheese and milk powder and it was yummy.

I also made besan ka ladoo which turned out pretty decent, not like mama's but good nonetheless. I put them in little cupcake holder paper thingies, it was very presentable and nice..the most fun was dressing thumki up. Her ghagra was in her way..



She was dragged about by the other children there and tried to valiantly hold her own..she is very independent spirited, she doesn't like to be cuddled unless its on her own terms..she enjoyed runnin around in circles with the cute 12 year old girl who was besotted with her.







The other 7 year old girl found out she likes shoes of all types and handed her a shiny chappal much to her delight.





When it came time to tie rakhis she just looked on quizzically..i tied on her behalf she just hung around watching me rotate the plate and ad teeka..she almost leapt on the diya.

bird moonwalk

An old friend sent me this hilarious video..watch the numnum go! K danke! Ich liebe Ihren Sinn fur HUmor Sie verruckter Vogel, ihre biene

Aaj ka din

Here is some tribal art created from things Thumki found in her morning outdoor adventure..we admired it..


only for a moment


then the canvas was lifted, inspected

and carried away for other experiments

She gave me company when I made her thepla, the first one I mixed with ghee and gur..my mouth watering the whole time..but she made a face...I couldn't waste it, no? So I ate it..yummm..

She ate a little of the plain one

The rest was fed to Palu who was not interested..sigh..why don't I just stick to gerber??

having a bad day

Why won't she sleep? She slept badly last night and for her afternoon nap she slept 20 minutes...aaargh! I NEED sometime to myself...We had a good morning got her car seat checked up by a pro to see if it was installed correctly, actually found some issues, so it was good I went at 830 am..too early for us..On the way back we went to the library, she had a great time, flopping on the giant bear's lap and pulling board books off the shelf. she was given free reign of the kids section, so she had a ball..then after an hour it was time to head home, I fed her in the car and put her in the car seat asleep..ofcourse she woke and started screaming on the top her lungs until I could get in the driver's seat..I got a look of concern from a passing mom..what are you doing to that poor child? Look at your own daughter running in the street, lady...like I said, having a bad day.

When the car started moving she fell asleep. The drive was 15 minutes. At home, I carefully took her out of the seat..had her sleeping in my arms all the way upto the bed...I was going to put her down lightly, not yet breathing(that's me not breathing)..when at the last minute I panicked, on her back or belly? back or belly...? Why, why, why...why do I question the most obvious things at such a critical moment? It should have been back, the way she was positioned, but no I wanted to put her face down on the damn blankie we bought a couple days ago, so she could get used to it....BAD DECISION, I kind of plonked her down...and of course she was up..up up up..cranky and playful at the same time. Today I just needed a few to myself to have some chai and read a little before starting the housework...sigh...

Friends

Just got some nice pics from a friend from a weekend trip at the beginning of the summer. This post is for you, V & A. Since we moved here they are the one family that feels comfortable. Their adorable son Nikhil who is almost 2 years old is Anika's boyfriend(they hug everytime they meet, see the kiss below) and guru..she watches and learns and we the parents get a chance to hang out and not be overwhelmed by constant parenting for the times that we can share the load. Here are some pics and a small blurb I wrote while Aniika took a nap....









June 9th, Port Aransas, TX 1:10pm

I'm sitting with my legs propped up at a windswept beach home in Port Aransas, TX. We are at V's familys' 41 year old beach home on an island just north of Corpus Christi. It is beautiful and muggy here. the damp salt air is clinging to my skin, I can actually feel the weight of the air, like Bombay. D and V are reading racy paperbacks, A and the kids are sleeping. All around us are sun bleached mementos of a family. The flags of the world are all one colour now, on the poster anyway. A wooden board says, 'Heaven's a little closer in a house by the sea,' that couldn't be more true. Thank you God for friends.

Family bed blues..

Had a terrible night...thumki woke up every hour after 4am, plus once before that when I didn't look at the clock. I really want to believe in the family bed and it works well most of the time, the closeness and the snuggling are great but last night was terrible. She is not teething but she keeps waking up to snack..it usually happens after she has rotated and kicked me in the face or something and I try very slowly to make a few inches for myself..but she invariably wakes up in a few minutes and then the whimpering and searching for the boobie starts..I can't say no to her, she starts screaming and everyone is disturbed. We tried attaching the crib flush upto the bed next to me, no railing and stuffing pillows in the back, we have her favorite stuffed toys in there. We thought the extra space would give her undisturbed sleep but she only plays in the crib, she doesn't sleep in there..DH was getting into work late coz of disturbed nights, we tried to have him sleep in the other room for a couple nights but we both missed him. Last night when he came back, she was all over him, jumping on his belly, biting his nose etc..what a welcome=)

But anyway, I was so tired this morning..am everyday. I do not get a restful night of sleep and after some accumulation it takes a toll on my state of mind and body. I know I am not living in an optimised manner. Its not her fault, its my lack of training for her so far. She sleeps later than other babies her age do, because she needs some time with her father when he comes back from work...she is up until we sleep, which means no time for us together without baby..this is hard. I have to make a better routine for her. If DH would be consistent about the time he came home and we could have dinner finished by 7 and go for a family walk after dinner and then bath and in bed by 8pm...that would be sane..

According to Pri who is a family bed mama, you just have to get used to the lack of good sleep to enjoy hte benefits of warm, cuddly baby...there must be a middle road i can find...?

Chak de India: Five stars!

This past weekend DH, Thumki and I went for Chak de India with trepidation, our last three attempts to watch a movie with baby in public have been frustrating, with thumki screaming to go from the first frame onwards..but this movie, her first Hindi fillum in true desi style she enjoyed, she started dancing in my lap like a good Indian baby from the start, the pulsating, loud music of Salim-Sulaiman was great. What a great movie, I really enjoyed it alot...Shahrukh is great, much like the Shahrukh in Swadesh, very real..and the team of girls..I loved them, great characters very endearing and refreshing.

Kabir Khan(Shahrukh), ex captain of the Indian hockey team coaches a team of girls, after 7 years in hiding post a lost game to Pakistan for which he is blamed and called 'gaddar', paki in indian clothing and other dramatic stuff...The coach trains the girls hard and makes them the 'Indian team' from a rag tag mix of 'state players'. Its a great sports film, of course its predictable but that doesn't matter, the characters are so much fun to watch, I found myself getting totally involved in their pain and gain..biting my nails through the finale. Chak de is a very well made film, very convincing sports film, good production, YashRaj films of course. The dialogues are fantastic. The casting is brilliant. I really liked the commentary on the farce of an 'women's team', Anjaan Srivastav plays the jaded, chauvanistic bureaucrat to a T..I liked the mixture of the girls, representative of the different worlds India lives in. I liked the political commentary and the questioning of the typical slurs..'you are madrasi?' no I'm Telegu...Telegu Tamil same thing, no? No are Punjabi and Bihari the same? The girls from Manipur and Mizoram are not pleased to be treated like guests. The girl from Haryana, Komal and Balbir form Punjab with her garam dimaag were fantastic. I also liked Bindia and her strong negativity, she wasn't folding easily. the script is text book..but the characters and dialogue lift this film way above the ordinary. It has great spirit! I loved the girl power....yeah..CHAK DE!!

This film is a sure hit, I can just see people watching it multiple times and learning the dialogues. It is a young, fresh movie with great music too, I'm going to buy the soundtrack, so thumki can keep shakin' to it! Chak de India made me very nostalgic and happy...GO WATCH IT!

Domestic efficiency program

So you've got to do what you've got to do..there is no way around cooking, cleaning, laundry..so after thought and dodging over the years the plan is to tame the beast..organize tasks into bite sized chunks according to a PLAN so that I can have free time to do the stuff I really want to. After years of snickering at 'military organization' in the home i.e. preplanned menu for the week ahead, becoming a mother has made me realize the wisdom in that, gone are the days of standing in the kitchen waiting to be inspired by sundry ingredients..spontaniety and chores are not good friends..Anyway will spare my few readers the boredom of the banal details of my domestic travails. I am very inspired by moms at the dailytiffin and the mom at veganlunchbox

The Secret Life Of Words - Must See

Saw a great movie over the weekend. Somehow managed to get Thumki to bed and DH and I watched it..we hadn't really heard of it in our current parenting blinker stage but we chanced upon it at the video store and agreed on it immediately..

Very good film, written and directed by Isabel Coixet..my first by her. Tim Robbins and Sarah Polley act brilliantly and Pedro Almodovar is the Producer. What an amazing, heart wrenching, captivating and memorable film. Its the kind of film that stays with you for days..Sarah polley is just brilliant..and the dialogue, the words are so good, the way they should be. The film is set on a dying oil rig in the middle of the ocean somewhere in the world. The film is the aftermath of an accident on the rig that is in its last days before total abandonment..there is consensus about this except for an idealistic oceanographer...this however is not an integral part of the film...but the little strand of idealism and the emotion is...everyone has a story, a past, all that's left is the stories and the words...I don't want to say much..please watch the film..it is not appropriate for kids.

Making a film is always such a mammoth task, but for a result like this..it must've all been worthwhile.