Adventures!

Ekaa's day-to-day activities which turn into adventures for us:

1. 9.30 pm I reach home, Ekaa is walking... balancing an inverted paper plate on head - shouting "Sajji" (aka sabji). And then next morning 9.30 am, when she wakes up, the first word she utters: "Sajji"!

2. Most of the times she wakes up, are the times when some vendor's shouting in the street. And she jumps off the bed repeating.
            In morning - Lassiiii
            In evening - Sajjiiii, Alooooo
AND she has to answer all the vendors - be it Radddiii, some kids yelling, someone coughing, someone sneezing!

3. Festivals month. Initially when she heard the bombs, she'll just stare and say "Baaaaam". Then since the day we took her to watch Raaven Dahen, she'll 'pretend' to be terrified/scared and will come to you instantly. Now- she'll cover her mouth and say "Hauh"! Just like that!

4. Ekaa's Dadu came and asked for tea saying "Chai bana do, mujhe neend aa rahi hai" (Prepare Tea, feeling sleepy). Instantly, Ekaa's mocking by opening her mouth wide open and Yawning! Nautanki!

5. Ekaa learning to be an attention seeker. Will fall, hit herself with wall, show as if her hand came in between while closing the door, and then will give a fake cry - 'bu-hu-hu' types. What does she wants in return? We leave whatever we are doing (talking with each other - watching TV - reading newspaper - in short ingnoring her) and caress her, blow air where she got "hurt", slap the 'thing' which hurt her and kiss her! 

6. It doesnt matter if we observe it or not, but she knows exactly when someone has left the door open AND she can escape. But not without giving us a look! Staircase is the place she enjoys shouting because the sound echoes!

7. First thing Ekaa does when her Dadu returns from office, go in his arms, and - take out pen from his pocket. Yesterday we saw, she had penmarks on her face. And then I was told, I was the culprit! She saw me applying 'Kajal' in my eyes. <sigh>

8. First thing Ekaa does when her Dad returns from office, take his Id card/tiffin box and out it in her own neck!

9. First thing Ekaa does when her Mom returns from office, about turn from the gate and play "pakdo-pakdo" until she reaches the room-corner! Then her mom will happily pick he up in her arms and :)

10. After dinner, Ekaa goes for an evening walk with her Dadu. Yesterday, I was busy somewhere and when she saw her Dadu was already to go, she herself quickly picked her pajamas (soiled one) as a ritual before leaving house and gave it to Dadu to make her wear!

I think she too enjoys BeingLoved... What say?

An escape.

This weekend we (as in Ekaa with her parents) went out of station for a friend's wedding. Though it was a small trip, but, for me, it came after a long wait. Of almost 4 years.

The wedding was in Nurpur, a small village in Himachal on Sunday evening. After initial naggings, I was finally able to convince my hubby to extend our trip from an "attending wedding" to a "small vacation"!

So, we left on Friday evening to Pathankot by train. For most of the journey, Ekaa was asleep. We reached at 6 on Saturday morning, and what a cool breeze it was! Ekaa's daily time of waking up is 9 am, so I expected her to be cranky. But... as we were talking to the cab vendors for a trip to Dalhousie, she was busy chirping with hundreds of birds around :) O chiyaa, Aaja chiyaa... O Doggie, Aaja doggie...

Our trip had now officially started towards Dalhousie. We were slowly gaining height. The Army Cantonments and the beautiful flowers on both sides of highway added to the charm! We took a break to have tea, to sustain nausea of hilly area. But as soon as we started back, Ekaa threw up :( My poor baby was still patient not to cry and give her mom a hard time. I asked to wait till she gives me a smile. She smiled, and we were back on track. Soon she was again drifted to sleep, only to open eyes once we reached. We took a room at hotel, got fresh, had the brunch and keft off to Khajiyaar, about 20 kms from there.

This was a beautiful place. A big big field to play around.

But we could let Ekaa on her own as the ground was not even.

Then me and Ekaa took a horse ride.  Unlike her dad, she did not at all showed fear and enjoyed the full 2-3 kms ride!

Kids there also let us click snaps with rabbits, my Ekuu was so very amazed by these lil sweeties!

After roaming for a couple of hours we took back the road to Dalhousie for a local sight seeing, some shopping, a walk along the Mall road (every hill station's hot street) and sipping some hot coffee with momos. I bought a nice pink colored poncho for Ekaa.

Then we came back to hotel room. As it was very cold, we chose to have dinner in our warm room. After a long day, we slept peacefully only to be woken up by beautiful morning sneaking from window.

Next day (Sunday) morning we hurried to get ready and leave as soon as possible as we knew that it would again take atleast 3 hours to reach Nurpur. We chose to have breakfast on our way at roadside dhabha - hot paranthas with curd - apt to the perfect surroundings. Got a chance to dress ourselves as well.

We reached Nurpur, congratulated our frend. The barat had stayed at PWD guest house which was indeed a treat in itself. We extracted some moments to play and have fun.

Took rest in afternoon for an hour and get dressed for the wedding. Ekaa enjoyed the baraat, the lights, the band, the crackers, the ghodi and spent the whole time in pandal playing on sofas! I must say she's a darling baby, playing by herself, jolly good, munching on dal cheela to dahi vada, AND giving other moms a chance to say - you have a wonderful kid! I dont mind hearing such comments until I see it effects - evil eye (nazar in hindi). As the night progressed, she was cranky for sleep and thus we came back to rest house.

Monday had arrived, and we had to plan how we are going to reach back to Pathankot to catch our train back. It was a tough task, as there were no autos/rickshaws/cabs! So, we had to walk all our way to reach the bus stand.

We reached Railway Station by changing bus once and then taking rickshaw in about 2 hours, phew! But with Ekaa (her first bus ride ever), it was all merry :) For she would sleep as soon as the ride starts! She lovingly ate Maggi at station canteen and coo-ed to fellow passenger kids and kaBOOTARS. There was a Fighter Plane Base nearby and every time the fighter planes roared to the sky, she would look in horror and would not move an inch for a couple of minutes!

In train, we had 3 kids on each of the birth. Ekaa talked, played, showed them her books, slept and by evening had caught cold, followed by fever. Now you know why I am scared when people adore my daughter (not that I like this either - irony).

We had reached our home by 11.30 pm. And, inspite of not feeling well, Ekaa joyfully woke her Dadi up, hugged and kissed her, did a ghoda tik sitting on her. Though our maid had already gone to sleep but Ekaa still made a point to Scream her name - Sheilaaaaa (her name is Susheela by the way) - to tell us that she knows she's back to her place and Happy!

I gave a lil medicine and she slept right away. Next morning she was already feeling better (Thank God) and by the time I were to leave for office, she was back in form, hopping and dancing. She came to drop me to cab - smiling as ever before, bidding me good bye, fighting with Sheila - so that I leave for office with a feeling of content - rejuvenated - BeingLoved.

Hi there!

I had been away from this place for long, reason being it was not accessible from office. Today I tried opening it and YO YO :P

This is the same time of year when I started this blog - October - Fall - Fetivities all around. I am happy. Or rather I have learnt to be happy. You wanna know the secret?

Remember I talked about the expectations. Yes, first and foremost, stop expecting. Though I am still learning the art, but I cant stop preaching it. Instead of waiting for someone do the things for you, do them yourself.

Second, love yourself. Eat healthy. Take time out for yourself - your passions. Look beautiful. And, take good sleep. Period.

Third, dont think negative. Dont let bad thoughts come to your mind, instead divert them! If you are out and feeling low, start listening to songs (and by songs I mean peppy - Rocks/punjabis and not Jaggu Dada) ot try remembering things which no matter what, bring you a smile (in my case its Ekaa's photos/videos on my cell). If you are at home and feeling alone, prepare Maggi/popcorns, grab some magazines. Dont like reading? Watch TV. Nothing interesting showing up? Make paper aeroplanes and go to terrace. No good winds at terrace? Go to park and watch kids play (you may end up enjying swings with them). Fed up of insomnia? Watch your favourite movies until you are asleep!

Last, call your parents, call your siblings, call your friends, call me :) Know you are BeingLoved right now, right here!

Weekend Park trip

This weekend, we took Ekaa for a stroller ride to the locality park. Not once she did ask to take her out of it (with her open arms, as she generally do...) She kept watching people/vehicles/animals on the road. We were asking her to see in front, but No! She would keep looking back to random things :)

We sat there for an hour and I really felt refreshed and happy for my daughter. So many kids saw her and wanted to play with her. And guess what, one kid came to her and she poked her finger in his face! But not because she wanted to hit him, but she wants to investigate each and every moving thing :)

She gets tired merely watching everywhere. Thats why most of the times while returning, she falls asleep. My sleeping beauty, my reason for Being.

God's gift!

Last week I went to my Mom's place (Jaipur). Its my sister's wedding in June and hence I had to do a lots of shopping!

But as usual, I wasted first four days sleeping, part of which has to be blamed to weather, its really hot (pretty scared what's gonna happen in wedding)!

Then suddenly we planned to go to my grandfather's place. Two days went by in travelling. I was happy coz it meant blessings for Ekaa - from our ancestors (we have our own temple) and from our KulDevi.

By the time we came back, my hubby also reached. That meant we had only 2 days (technically and practically - 2 evenings) left for shopping <sigh>. So we ran and tried to strike out as many items in our list as we could.

On the last eve, we were sitting in car in parking, Ekaa sleeping peacefully in my arms. And then suddenly my sister said "You know what! Ekaa is a God's gift to you. All parents adjust with their kids, but your daughter adjust with you!"

It was really true. She never gets irritate (touchwood). She will get a lil irky only when she wants to sleep and that too when she gets bored! While we were in temple, there was so much of rush, kids were giving their parents the worst nightmares, but Ekaa was supercool, enjoying every moment she could!

We came back refreshed and definitely now understand what does it mean BeingBlessed (with a daughter like Ekaa)...

Video chat

As my Mom lives away from me :S (every married woman in India lives away from her mom); she wanted to see Ekaa LIVE. After several busy weekends, when her patience ran out, I promised her on a week (office) day that I'll have her video chat with Ekaa for sure! So, equipped with the darling grand daughter of the darling grand mom, after having dinner I switched on the broadband and opened the laptop. Lo, behold

Tadaaa! There goes my honest try in vain...


PS. I told my mom to come and personally meet her, but eventually failed in persuading her as well.

Ekaa's outing to SurajKund

We went to Surajkund Mela and officially this was the first FULL DAY outing for my liitle brat! AND guess what, she enjoyed so much and did not give us a single reason to crib (not that I was asking for it!!!)

Ohhhh, I love her!
These days she's started telling us WHAT to do. She might not have started speaking, but her actions do :) Sometimes, she wants to go outside; sometimes she wants food. How much wisdom does GOD instill in them before sending them here!

Today my hubby had a holiday, is at home and he told me that she's having a great time. They watched monkey's dance and he recorded it in cam. I just cant wait to watch it :P