...And, he goes to school now :)

Well, we might not realize how time flies, but it does.  As if it was yesterday, the kid was born, and we were happy about the addition to the family..   Now, already he's onto his first day at play school and I feel like, Oh my god, he's already 2.5 yrs. :)

But, thats what it is, we've chosen KidZee as his first school, and I think they are one of the better ones.

Before choosing a school for him, we did quite a bit of research, spoke to friends, read reviews about the schools here and there and what not.  At the end, the things that mattered most to us were -

1. The space available in the school - obviously, should be ample, a cramped 2-3 bhk apartment/home cant serve as a play school. The playground should actually be a playground, not some sacks of sand on a 4x4 area serving as the playground
2. No of kids in total at a given point of time - some schools have sections A,B,C,D.... effectively crowdingthe place so much that its an effort to be there, let alone enjoy the place
3. The ratio, that is how many kids per teacher - some schools have upto 30+ kids handled per teacher. At this tender age this is nearly an horror story for a single person to take care of so many.  Kids need individual attention, so, lower the number of kids per teacher, the better.
4. And, the location - We had to reject one of the schools just because they were so close to a large road.  The noise and pollution from the road would come in all the time, it would be counter productive to send the kid to such a place.

Of course other subjective things are there anyway, like the repute of the school, the reviews from friends, sometimes internet reviews also help (mostly negative things)

Well, the chosen one fit on all of the favourable things in the optimum ratio.  Lets see how it goes...

Some of the snaps at the place -

Happy 2nd Birth Day ....

I am not there with him today, the mom is. And though he would have some fun for sure, I am going to miss all of that... :(

wish you a happy birthday remotely...

And he walked...and I missed it... :(

He walked today... on 13th February 2010, the saturday, at the age of 1 year 2 months and 26 days, our son, Krishna walked on his own...

A day to be remembered forever, and with happiness...

However, being very selfish and lonely, I have to say, it happened when I was not there. And besides having almost all the gadgetory required to capture such moments, we missed to capture it. We couldnt take any photographs, no video, nothing. Basically nothing to remember that moment by.

But sad as that might sound on my missing it, its great news that he did walk. And, in front of that news, nothing else matters... He walked.. he walked.. he is gonna walk ..........

Starts crawling...

I was not home that day, but I wished I was.

He was on our double bed and was sleeping (I think). He woke up and suddenly she (his mom) saw him attempting crawls. At 6-7 months of age, the crawls should be expected behavior.

Whether expected or not, it was a pleasant surprise none the less... It was GREAT.. :)

After that day, we are thinking of getting him a walker.

Update: 10 August 2009
Got him a walker looking like this

And he spoke.....

Today could easily be termed as one of the best days of my life...

The baby spoke for the first time.. and that too.. said "papa"... though I was not there to hear it first hand, it has been digitized (recorded in video) and I would hope to see/hear it when I get the first chance...

The very idea that he is already starting to speak up.. I can at least call it uttering... feels pretty great...

Imagine, a few months, this guy was inside a water bubble, a tiny thing barely a few centimeters.. and now he is already waving, smiling, crying, recognizing faces, doing all those pretty and naughty things that change a parent's life forever...

Fabulous feeling.. not enough words with me to describe it... :D

And he's one month today... :)

Its been a month today... since he came into our world, the tiny one.

He's added a new dimension, a whole new perspective to our lives. The way of thinking is changing already, the way we plan our lives is changing, the core values which governed our lives are now changing from growth to growth mixed with stability...

Its a huge change, no doubt being a parent means a lot. It sure is a LOT...

And the name is here....

Ha... It was a busy day... the day he got a name, at least officially speaking. They always call a baby with thousand names anyway but the one name that is used formally is given on this day.

Now, he is called Krishna... (based on Lord Krishna, born in the same town as we live in).

The ritual was long and tiring, but we all go with it. I am not best equipped to explain all the logic and reasoning behind it, but will try to post enough images to show how and what happened.

Here's the formation of the worship place, wherein the priest would summon all the gods and goddesses to be part of the procession.

Herein rice plays an important role, along with the water brought from Ganges.

Chosen fruits which have seeds in their core play a rather important role.

Every indian house has a place of worship, which has idols of the favourite gods. On occasions like these, the idols are brought out and worshipped along with other religious proceedings.

Further, there is havan, wherein a small pyre of fire is lit, which is fed purer stuff, e.g. pure butter, wood from the pipal or mango tree etc.

The idea behind is that the fumes from such a fire are supposed to be cleansing for the household. That way, the whole ritual turns into a cleansing process, purifying one...

After the chanting is done, the pyre (with fumes still emanating) is taken across the household (so that the fumes spread).

As is visible from the snaps, the new parent couple sits together in the process, praying to the almighty as single person (the couple acting as one unit). In the havan process, the male puts in the butter to the fire, whereas the female puts in the havan Samagri (a mixture containing many things meant to generate pure fumes).

After the havan is done, the newborn is handed over to the grand father, who would then let baby know the names of the 7 generations of the baby.



that would be

1. my great great great grand father
2. my great great grand father
   
3. My great grand father
4. My grand father
5. my father
6. me
7. my son

Well, thats when my father (baby's grandpa) whispered the new name to the baby through a funnel made of beetle nut leaf.

From priest's version, the funnel should be made of gold, but he would make do with this workaround.

Such workarounds are very common with Indian rituals. The scriptures, where there are methods advised to perform a certain ritual, refer to the process as if a king would be performing such ceremony. However, in real life following the scriptures is practically impossible. So, such workarounds are more and more common during such ceremonies.






And then there is celebration from the womenfolk of the home and neighborhood. There is song and dance in praise of the newborn, wishing him good, in comments/taunts (all in good humour) to the new parents, grandpa and other relatives.

Even the older ones wont stop from a bite of the celebration... :)

The Chhati ceremony....

Its celebration of first six days of baby's life...and is first of the rituals after baby's homecoming.

Besides being the first formal announcement of the birth to the relatives and the neighbourhood, this is the first formal celebration also. The basic idea of chhati is to get the baby and the mother inducted properly in the household after the newborn comes home for the first time. Here, ladies get together and sing ominous songs about the newborn, wishing him and the parents-family luck and good in life.

Its mostly praying to the gods, praying for safety and health of the baby, and of the mother. The poor father is nowhere mentioned along the process boo hoo hoo hoo... :(

For the ritual, the baby is put in a new set of clothes gifted by the aunt of the baby (or if there is no aunt to baby, aunt to the father).

Some sweets and sometimes meals etc complete the process. Towards the end of the process, Kajal (black carbon extracted from burning of mustard oil on some brass pot) is applied to both baby's and mother's eyes.

Its the birthday today...

17th November 2008 has become one of the greatest days in our life now. Our firstborn, yet to be named officially, has entered the world today.

It was some pain for sure, since it was a cesarean section operation, but otherwise things have gone rather well. No complications except that she never had the pains. And therefore the surgery.

This has been a very long and interesting journey. Sometimes more interesting than others, and sometimes sad. Especially when we lost my mother, who was the single most interested person to see this baby coming into the world.

The attempts to get pregnant, talking to doctors in Switzerland, their views about it. They always said that we should not worry about getting pregnant too much, it would automatically happen when the couple is not so tense. That perhaps happened exactly the way. By end of feb/march we were bit tired of trying and had given it up on the mother nature.

The initial three months of pregnancy were spent in Switzerland. It was a mixture of happiness and anxiety, put together with nervousness of not doing anything wrong. But then it turned out alright, when we completed the first trimester without any issues.

Then came possibly the worst news one could expect when expecting a new member of the family. My mom passed away during the second trimester, and we had to rush back to India immediately.

Afterwards, nothing was same in our lives. The normal life, the pregnancy, everything was different then. We were missing her in lot many ways, especially the part that an elder has to play when there is a expecting female in the house. To a large part, her mom filled in, but nobody can replace another person, and so we still miss her in many ways.

Recently, when there were talks and discussions about having a normal delivery or a surgery, her presence was missed the most. She would have had her own opinion, and probably would make a lot of difference to the situation we stand in today.

When the baby was born, and I saw him for the first time, the first thing I felt was, “Oh god, her wish is fulfilled, if only she was present today to witness this.” It was a baby boy, something she wished for a lot, since my generation of people in our family only has daughters. It was much sought after.

We miss you mom, and will keep missing you. Probably, his arrival to our lives will only strengthen the absense we feel for you.

Remembering you,

pooja
raghav..