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Thursday, January 24, 2008

Sakrant - 14th Jan, 2008



If I were to count the dates which Daddy looks forward to in the calendar, it would be my birthday, Mamma's birthday, his marriage anniversary & a bunch of other birthdays and anniversaries.

However, 14th January is the date he has the most fun. It's Makarsakranti, aka Sakrant, the festival of kites in Jaipur. The whole sky is filled with color & people have a gala time in the soothing winter sun. Jaipur is one of the world's most famous heritage cities and some of the festivals here attract tourists in large numbers. For the uninformed, a kite is known as 'Patang' in hindi while a person flying the kite is known as a 'Patangbaaz'. Daddy used to be a renowned kite flyer in his childhood days & he used to start as early as 5 AM in the morning. Grandma often had a very hard time making him study or even eat his food during January while he was in school.

This year was a bit different. He set off for the roof at around 9:30 AM (along with me). The number of kites was steadiliy increasing every minute & the sky was getting more colorful & more beautiful with every passsing minute. Very soon, everybody else (Grandpa, Grandma, Bhua & lastly Mamma) joined us on the rooftop.

In our neighbourhood, everywhere my eyes went, there were people & more people on the roofs of their houses. As soon as Daddy handed me over to Mamma, his kite was reaching out to the skies within minutes. The whole Kheterpal family enjoyed a delicious breakfast on the house roof. It was bright & sunny so we stayed on the roof while Daddy was busy with his kites. The lunch & evening tea were also served by Grandma while we were enjoying the pleasing sunlight of January.

It was a day of fun & frolic which I really enjoyed. I love colors & this day the sky looked like a colorful collage. Wishing everyday was as colorful and funfilled as this day!!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

My First Lohri - 13th Jan, 2008


13th January is another auspicious day in Hindu Calendar, it's time to celebrate Lohri. The first Lohri assumes special significance for married couples and young ones as it's usually celebrated with friends and relatives arriving to bless them. However, it's a strange custom in our 'Punjabi Arora' famillies that it's only celebrated for male new borns & not for girls :(

Daddy does not agree with any useless customs/ superstitions & this one was no exception. So, we decided to have a small celebration at home to mark my first Lohri - I guess it's the official way of signifying that 'Vanisha Kheterpal' has arrived ;)

I was dressed up in a fabulous pink dress by Mamma. She says that pink colour suits me the most & I look best in it. Daddy says that every colour suits me & I look awesome in every dress including nappies (or without nappies for that matter.. shame shame). He just loves me too much to be honest about anything ;)

We lit fire using some wood & performed the usual rituals around it. Daddy had recieved invitations from a couple of relatives for Lohri celebrations. We set off for the first venue where as expected, I was the center of everybody's attraction with relatives queueing up to hold me in their arms. There were also a lot of small kids so I had a good time before I fell asleep because I was damn tired.

The scene was no different at the second venue and we were back home at 11 in the night. Some hindu rituals are terrific & some of them are terrible, this one comes in the terrific category & I had a great time :)

East or West, Home is the best !

Someone truly said that there's no place like home. We reached home at 10:30 AM after the long tiresome journey. As soon as daddy rang the doorbell, grandpa, grandma & bhua were out in a flash to meet me. They were all overjoyed to see me & I could see how much they had been missing me in the last one month.

Withing moments, our house which had been quiet for the last one month was buzzing with my chirps and everybody enjoying it. Till I was 8 weeks old, I did not have any set sleep pattern & it was a mission impossible to put me to sleep more often than not. Grandma, Mamma & Daddy used to try their own tricks to put me to sleep but I stood firm most of the time till they were tired & then I would budge so that we could all enjoy some dreams. Grandma's technique was the most efficient, she would make me lie down on her lap & recite chants & bhajans till I fell asleep. I hardly understand a word of what she said but it sounded nice so I would tend to fall asleep before I knew what was going on.

Some snaps were clicked to mark the occasion of my home coming before we all got a well deserved rest in the afternoon.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Meeting Daddy - 12th Jan, 2008


It was now exactly one month that I had been at Naani's place in Sirsa, my new home away from home. All this while, Daddy was missing me more than I/ Mamma missed him. He reached Sirsa at 5 AM in the morning on 12th January and the first thing he did then was the same thing he had done when he left me at Naani's house one month back - that was to kiss me almost 50 times !

I don't like it when he does'nt shave & kisses me on my cheeks but since he loves me a lot so I'll pardon him for that. I & Daddy were seeing each other after one month. He said to Mamma that my looks have changed a lot in past one month. That's true daddy ! It's the law of nature & that's how kids grow up. I've obviously become more cute than earlier & I've also gained some weight.. oops.. girls are never supposed to say that :)

The most important change he noticed was that I've started to smile a lot more than I used to earlier and respond to people's actions. Till I was 7 weeks old, I mostly smiled while sleeping & enjoying my dreams. But now, I've developed a cute social smile.

We set off for Jaipur the very same night.. yet another train journey for me :). This one was a bit longer than the Jaipur<->Sirsa journey a month back but I slept through out the night & woke up when the train had arrived at Jaipur railway station.

More in next post...

Monday, January 7, 2008

Polio Vaccination - 6th Jan, 2008


6th January was the first polio campaign for the year 2008. Mamma & Nani took me to a nearly Polio Vaccination booth & got me vaccinated. This is my third polio vaccination. The doctor had recommended to Daddy & Mamma that they should get me vaccinated each time there's such a campaign.

I don't really like the taste of polio drops but I don't mind it either as Mamma gives me a full spoon of honey after the vaccination. I absolutely love the taste of honey & I even cry to make Mamma realize that I want some more of it. What a pity that Mamma does not understand my language yet!

Anyway, it's very important for young kids especially those less than a year old. It is a must to eradicate a disease like Polio from our society as it has spoiled the lives of a large number of kids.

I'm quiet happy & so is Daddy as he's coming to Nani's place to take me to Jaipur. I'm excited to be going back home where Grandpa, Grandma & Bhua are also eager awaiting my arrival.

Hopefully, the next post will be from Jaipur with Daddy sitting besides me!

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Missing Vanu!


For a change, I won't impersonate Vanu in this one post
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More than three weeks have passed since I dropped Vanu off to Sirsa. Meanwhile, I've been shuttling work & home between Gurgaon & Jaipur. I've been missing Vanu like anything. I see her albums every day (difficult to count how many times every day) & she's at the back of my mind through out day (& night - For whatever reasons, I get dreams almost every night ever since I turned 10, Vanu has featured in a lot of them off late)

To make things worse, the train service has been cancelled for January due to fog & poor visibility. I'm now in a fix as to how to bring Vanu back. A 10 hour long bus journey is not a feasible proposition while my in-laws are really apprehensive about me driving down to Sirsa. I slept at 10 in the night on new year's eve, never felt like going out with friends or watching TV, spent a lot of time imagining how I would spend New Year's Eve with Vanu the next time around.

I miss the warmth of carrying her in my arms, her sleeping on my shoulder, changing her nappies, everthing that she did :). I call Jyoti every day to know how her day went. Meanwhile, Vanu keeps everybody busy & entertained at her Nani's place in Sirsa.

I now realize how much I've changed after Vanisha was born & more so after she's been away for a few days. I've always loved & respected my parents a lot. Now that I'm a father myself, I understand what they feel for me and I respect them even more. I value relationships more than anything else in my life and I don't have words to describe the bond that I share with Vanu.

Perhaps, the more I write about it, the more I'll feel sad about it. So, I'll just wrap this up hoping that I meet Vanu soon.

Vanu, Daddy loves you & misses you a lot !!
Hugs & Kisses from Daddy

First Visit to Naani's place

It's a custom in Daddy's family that kids should not go out (to protect them from evil spirits.... yawn !!) before they are 40 days old. As soon as I touched 40 days, there were a number of phone calls from Naani asking Mamma to come over & spend some time with her. It was winter vacation time at Naani's school as well.

So, Daddy booked the tickets & we set off for Naani's place on 15th December, 2007. We took the 'Jaipur Amritsar Express' train which is usually on time & takes 9 hours to reach Sirsa from Jaipur. Since the weather was really cold, I was packed with clothes, more clothes & more of them :) to prevent me from the cold weather. The train departed at 19:30 PM in the evening & I was fast asleep till 1 in the night.

Daddy had read in one of the crap parenting blogs that young kids find it very difficult to cope up with the noise in rail travel, especially when another train passes by in the other direction. I wonder what makes Daddy believe in all these things !!

Anyway, I woke up at 1 & ensured that no one else could sleep till 2:30 AM. There was a doctor on the adjacent seat who took good care of me as well before I dozed off again into my dreams. By the time I woke up again, we had reached Naani's house at 5 in the morning.

Daddy returned to Gurgaon the very next day to resume office duties. He knew I would be away for atleast two weeks so he tried to make up for it by kissing me at least 50 times in less than 10 minutes before he left for Gurgaon. Daddy, your beard hurts !!

More on 'Names' :)

India is a country of more than a billion people & Daddy now realized why India is topping the charts in population the world over. I was born in October, 2007 & in last three odd months, a large (very large) number of Daddy's friends/ relatives/ colleagues/ classmates have experienced the joy of parenthood :)

Some of the names chosen by the recent (& not so recent) parents are amazing ('Rocking' as daddy calls them) so he had to dedicate a post to them. So, here's the list in no particular order:

Mehek - Daughter of Amit & Shikha (Dua & Dui as daddy fondly calls them). They are both good friends of daddy since his college days in SLIET. 'Mehek' means fragrance & is a lovely name. Mehek was born in Feb, 2007.

Vivaan - Son of Ashish & Jaspreet (Chabbu & Jas - 2 more of Daddy's gang members from SLIET). Daddy had never heard of it earlier. Since Chabbu & Jas stay in US, a modern name like 'Vivaan' is a perfect fit. It means Lord Shiva. Vivaan was born in Nov, 2006.

Vihaan - Son of Meghna & Vikrant. Meghna (or Meghna Madam in Mamma's language) was Mamma's colleague at Amity School of Engg & Tech in Delhi. Not sure what it means but it sounds good & is not very common either. Vihaan is 1.5 years old now.

Akshit - Son of Praveen & Deepika, Daddy's neighbours in Gurgaon. They initially named him 'Jiyesh' as the starting letter came out as 'J'. Akshit sounds better any day, thank god that they decided to change his name :). Akshit is close to turning 2 years old.

Bhavik - Son of Asit & Sukriti. Asit is another one of Daddy's classmate & friend from his SLIET days. He was perhaps the naughtiest character in his class. It's another nice & uncommon name. Bhavik turned 2 years old on this New Year's eve.

Sharon - Daughter of Manju & Pradeep. Manju (err Manju Madam) was Mamma's colleague at Amity & is now based in US. That's one name which sounds more american than indian ! Sharon was born on 2nd Oct, 2007

Aprajita - Daughter of Meenu & Sanjay. Meenu is one of Mamma's childhood friends & neighbours from Sirsa. Daddy says it's a beautiful name & it sure is :). Aprajita was born in May, 2007

Jiya - Daughter of Maninder, a colleague of Daddy from Alcatel. This one is from the 'Karan Johar Book of Names' - short & sweet. One of the meanings is 'Heart'. Maninder is based in Sydney, Australia. Jiya is 2 weeks old now (Hurray, finally some one younger than me :)

Ishaan - Son of Poonam & Munish (Poonam was a classmate of Daddy in SLIET). This one is a bit more common than others. Out of the 50 odd serials that Mamma watches on TV, two of them have kids with this name. Nice name though ! Ishaan was born in September, 2006 (or 2005 - Daddy's fading memory ??).

Rushil - Son of Vikas & Vandana. Vikas was a colleague of Daddy from Alcatel. This one is easily the most innovative & unheard of the lot! It means 'Charming'. Rushil was born in Dec, 2007.

Diya - Son of Puja (Puja was a classmate of Daddy in SLIET). Daddy has lost touch with her after college & he picked this one up from Puja's blog. Diya means 'light', 'dazzling personality'. She shares her name with one of the most beautiful actresses from the Indian Film Industry - Diya Mirza. A name which really appears 'soft' & pleasing to the ears. Diya was born in December, 2007.

Daddy loves the letter 'A' so here are some of them with his favourite letter:

Aarav - Son of Reeti & Dheeraj (SLIET again !!).
Arnav - Son of Malkiat & Preeti (SLIET - is that too hard to guess? :)
Arohi - Daughter of Ritu (ex-Colleague from Alcatel)
Ambreen - Daughter of Manpreet (SLIET's here again)

Okay.. that's been a long list already. Some of the parents have gone the more conventional way & picked more common names, here are some of them:

Siddharth - Son of Vishal & Suprika (Daddy's friends from SLIET)
Krishna - Son of Ajay (a school friend of Daddy)

The list is not yet complete as some of my friends are on their way to planet earth in the coming months :) Daddy, please ensure that you update this list when they are here :)

The 'Name Saaga' continues


Daddy has a habit of going into a shell once in a while and hence a long break since last post :(
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I turned two months old on 29th December, 2007. Daddy read an article few days back in one of the leading newspapers which said:-

"It is scientifically proven that children with names starting with the first few letters of the english language (A,B up to G.. all right... stretch it up to M) tend to do a lot better academically than those with names starting with the last few letters (T-Z)"

I know that it's ridiculous however Daddy is fond of getting worried on getting almost everything as perfect as possible for me. He's had the following argument on this theory:

* The roll number convention in majority of schools is based on the starting alphabet of first name of the child. His schooling story was pretty much the same. A guy named 'Ambreesh' was well & truly a cut above the rest & easily the best student in his class. Dad believed that he got an unfair advantage because his roll number was in the beginning (I know it sounds RUBBISH, that's the way daddy is :)

Anyway, he loves my name & me more than anything else so he won't change it now (that's what I hope). My family has already derived a lot of nick names for me, the list goes as follows:

Vanu - Daddy's favourite, now it's been taken over by Mamma as well
Vini - Granpda's favourite
Pari - Bhua's favourite
Vanisha - GrandMa always insists on calling me by my name. She did'nt have a nick name for daddy either when he was born :)