I am baaackk.. !!

We are all thrilled to announce the birth of

"My baby Sister"...

Needless to say, I am so proud of her..



Here is a better photograph of her.

and as is usually my Daddy's style, here is a photograph of me when I was a few hours old (just to stop wagging tongues as to who she looks like !!!)

In case you are still in doubt, SHE LOOKS JUST LIKE ME, SILLY !!!

Daddy wont be able to blog as often as he used to but he will still post once a day..

Love

Big sister.

Happy Deepavali - from the sweetest witch on the planet!

Wishing you all a very happy and wonderful

Deepavali

Deepa Raya

and whatever else my dad says the festival is being called across the globe !!

Have a great and festive time...

Will meet you all after a week with my new sister !!!

Halloween !! I am going to eat my words ...

I have always been opposed to the Halloween concept!! Not that it is not a fun festival in the United States, but the concept of why it creates such fervor. The thing was originally an Irish festival(am not sure of this) to get blessed by spirits of our ancestors and I do not know if the Irish(or anyone else) spend so much effort and time celebrating Halloween as the Americans ! This is not surprising since Indians in America celebrate Indian festivals with more enthusiasm than in India. However, these festivals dont catch on with the international community like Halloween.

Have always had arguments with my wife saying "it is a bogus festival to encourage consumer spending". Seriously, americans spend upwards of a billion dollars on halloween paraphrenalia, that I wouldnt be surprised if there is a "pumpkin lobby" or "trick or treat lobby" or "costume lobby" in congress right now.

This year I was more open to Halloween simply because our family celebrated the navarathri Golu festival (which incidentally is at least a few hundred year old tradition in south india, if not more). We were invited to a wonderful Halloween/Diwali party today. One person per family was asked to carve a pumpkin for their kid(s).



My daughter had picked a really small pumpkin from a patch (as part of a field trip from her day care) and I didnt really have many options in terms of artistry here. But for the first time, I shut up and enjoyed the party !!


Next year, I plan to do a real masterpiece on a large pumpkin (Mona Lisa ? Last supper ?)... Okay, I admit that I have been suckered into this carving business..

In a few years, I intend to start a new American (International) tradition called Walloween where people carve water melons instead of pumpkins and the festival focuses on getting blessings from the "water gods". If I plan the merchandising right and appeal to the right market segment... just think of the possibilities !!!

India - Land of traditions...

Called India this weekend to tell them all is well with the wife and kid and everything is on schedule for the new arrival.

At the end of the phone conversation we got the usual blessings from the elders :

"we will pray that you have a normal delivery and that mother and child will be safe".

The "normal" refers in this case to "non C-section", a painful truth that just makes me shake my head.

In spite of having this C-section scheduled months in advance people in India always have this notion that a "normal" delivery is better than a C-section and they hope by that some miracle the surgery will be avoided!!

In those days, C-sections were more risky than a normal childbirth and hence the apprehension over surgical deliveries(C-section is Ceasarian section - a procedure that dates back to Julius Ceasar times !!). Today a planned C-section is a much better option than a normal delivery, especially since the normal delivery might end up in an emergency C-section (my wife already went through that horrible experience !!)

This is just similar to the "we will pray that you have a boy!" blessing from people who were already informed that the Ultrasound tells us that we are having a GIRL !! We were really worried that the kid might try to grow something between its legs in the last minute, after hearing all these blessings, and might end up short changed !!

I know that my friends and relatives back home are very sincere in their wishes- that "ALL should go well". The language and semantics make the blessing less appealing.

Like our doctor said "No one is going to give you a gold medal if you have a normal delivery !".

I know this is a sensitive post, and the only point I would like to make is that the standard blessing formats are handed over from generation to generation that there is little room for change. It is like the standard Greeting options available to you in the Indian telegraph service (at least when I was a kid)!!.

So they cannot deviate from :
God bless you with many sons !
May you have a normal delivery !
May you have many sons who will carry your genes forward !!etc. etc.

We need to start practising some new blessings / greetings for the today's world !!

It is an interesting fact that most of my hispanic friends gave me similar blessings (biased towards a boy baby or a normal delivery !!). When asked for a clarification, they also said that they mean (boy/girl) and safe/normal . . just that they are used to the way the blessing is worded generation after generation !!
That means we are not the only culture which has managed to retain its bias over the generations by standardizing the blessings.

Today's TV mega serials have one thing in common. The protagonist is a WOMAN, who triumphs against all odds !! Today's world (at least the Tamil population) is being raised on a healthy diet of "the triumph of the determined woman" and it just makes sense that we change our greetings accordingly !!!

The little one learns Tamizh (Tamil) !!

Grandma was very determined when she came from India last week. Among the countless goodies she got from india (sweets, savories, music CD's, clothes, DVD's of Indian movies etc. ) there was one item that stood out..

Learn Tamil in 30 days !!!

I dont know if she was trying to use this book to be a better teacher or she was really hoping that her toddler grand daughter would pick up Tamil in 30 days..

I was actually happy that grandma was trying, because all my attempts to make my daughter reply in Tamil have recently failed (especially since she started going to daycare !!). She has a thick accent, which I cannot place and calls me sUndAAr instead of Sundar.

To make my little contribution to the teaching effort, I started a little teaching session just before bed time .

Me : What is this ? (pointing to eyes)
Her: Eyes !
Me : In tamil ?
Her: hmmmmm..
Me : it is "Kannu"
Her: Kannu (her eyes light up because she knows this word and uses it in normal conversation.. . i also call her Kannu - "my eyes" along the "you are the apple of my eye" connotation..
Me : What is this ? (pointing to nose)
Her: Nose
Me : In tamil ?
Her: Mookku
Me : Good Job
Me : What is this ? (pointing to my leg)
Her: Leg
Me : In tamil ?
Her: Legguu !!!!

I guess she caught on to the ending for Kannu, Mukku, Kaadhu (ears) and decided Leg would be Legguu..

All we can say at this point is "good luck grandma"..