1st Birthday

Just like everything else with me, my first birthday was also celebrated twice. Hey... who's complaining?? I had my first birthday in traditional style at Bangalore. This was in accordance with Hindu nakshatra tradition. As wished by Thatha, Appa & Amma conducted an 'Ayush homam' (literally, a pooja for longevity). Gauri athai, Raghu chitappa had flown down from Mumbai. Many of my Bangalore based relatives joined the function and wished me the best, some of them I was seeing for the first time. Vinod chitappa entertained us with some songs. I had a flower garland around my neck and for some reason, (maybe the heat due to the homam), I found the flowers in the garland, very tasty indeed and proceeded to take the garland apart while at the same time, eating off the flowers.

I then visited Ambikapur, my Amma's hometown in deep interior 'naxal-infested' Chattisgarh. visit to ambikapur via mumbai & raipur. In Raipur, I met Hari mama and his parents. Once in Ambikapur, some of Amma's students and kids came to play with me. I guess I like the VIP treatment I got here.

I had my 1st birtday party, all modern style, with cakes and balloons and dancing. There was some great entertainment from Shubam, Sonai, Jumma, and the rest of the gang. Jumma has taught me some nice rhymes which I hope to remember. I am told Jumma has mellowed down dramatically in the past one/two years. A visit to the local Ambika temple followed, where I saw goats (bakri) for the 1st time. It was a strange sound, yet fun. Also followed was a visit or two to Paati's school and I started loving the school so much that I wanted to go with my Paati everyday to school. I also was dressed up as Krishna for the Janmashtami function and Appa made me walk along the kolam depicting little Krishna's footsteps. Ganesh chaturthi was fun too...

Among my favorite activities in Ambikapur, clinging to Anita's back within a sling should rank #1. The cows make the regular mid-morning visit to the road. Deepak bhaiyya took us to the nearby waterfall, my 1st waterfall visit. Paati also gave me my daily massage early morning. I love this so much that I have come to expect a massage from Amma everyday.

The whistling of the steam pressure cooker ranks up there as my most dreadful everyday experience.