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.