My personal music critic – my little Ad!

Little Ad critiques!

On that note!  Happy New Year to all of you! Stay safe!

Ciao,

Shankari.

2.5 months of hiding it  from family

1 week of “Really? Again?!!” ‘s , “No, you didn’t” ‘s , “Do you know what it is?” ‘s to “I hope it is a boy finally” ‘s to “I guess you want a boy that bad” ‘s from family and friends.. actually this continued through out the 9 months! and is still going on among those who got to know recently that I have a three girls

3 months of trying to fit Na and R into an Indian life, attending Indian schools, going through lot of emotional trauma trying to manage everything on my own without H’s help.

2 weeks of confusion, thanks to Indian Government policies on visitor visas – Delivery in India or Delivery in US

2 days of decision making, going back to US! Although sad that I will be leaving my parents and family, I was also glad that I am going to be back with H on whom I can lean on the most, at all times

4 more months of apprehension, more tests, more apprehension, many many more questions!

D-Day- Baby ‘Ad’ arrived  :)

3 more months of apprehension, since she supposedly had some issues with her heart. The doctors examined her at 3 months and found nothing! After she turned 3 months old, we have truly enjoyed our  girls and thanked God everyday for blessing us with three cuties!

Today Ad turned 6 months old.   Considering she has occupied very little blogspace on Naradtales, what better occasion to make an Ad-specific post!  Happy Birthday kanna, thank you for coming into my life! Truly,  I did not know I would enjoy you this much 15 months ago

Ciao for now,

Shankari.

I made this wall hanging for my parents, when they left from here.  I used some rope that was lying around the house, colourful yarn, some colourful pompom’s, mirror’s and the tin part of some tea light candles, used during Deepavali.

Ciao for now,

Shankari.

So Narad in tow, H and I attended the concert yesterday.  To say that the performances was stupendous would be an understatement.  The young artists had a strong hold on the language and the music and created magic on stage.  It was heartening to see kids born here so well versed in carnatic music!

Bringing Narad up in the US, I am often plagued by whether I will be able to successfully instill some of the Indian culture (read – classical music, classical dance, painting, and food!, in my case ) .  The recent years of my stay in New Jersey has shown me that the Indians in NJ are more into  my kind of “culture” than probably my peers back home !

Yesterdays music program once again drove home to me that my kind of culture is definitely rich in New Jersey!  The dedication to music among the artists and the pride among  the parents was noteworthy.   Kudos to you all for having persevered in instilling music in your kids, and  having kept up with the endless practice/soul-searching/questioning sessions.

As a young parent, I thank you for upping the interest in my little ones, who have been constantly holding a “Kutchery” at home since we came back from the event Hopefully one day they will be able to make their mark in some form of fine arts….

The four cards on the side are Na’s, she asked me to tell the “blog” aunties that she has coloured Deepavali diyas and crackers and some festoons on her cards. The middle blue one  is R’s - she probably would be able to explain her card better

Tata,

Shankari

Isn’t this Ganesha a beauty? H’s colleague got it for us from Bombay.

Signing off with these snaps from the Avial household -

Stay safe!

Ciao for now,

Shankari.

Thank you Miss L and Miss S for teaching and guiding R all these months. Bye Teachers, we both will miss you! I baked an eggless sponge cake, recipe taken from here, as a thank you gift for the teachers.

All the best R, with your new teachers.

Ciao for now,

Shankari.

So, anyway, like I was saying this is something I delegate with unflinching regularity   So tuesday’s and Friday’s  mornings I am at my sweetest with H.  Today he says to me, kithne pyar sae bolti hai…. Darling Kachda Phenko!

Saturday morning saw us in the local Babies R Us, all three girls in tow dressed in Indian finery waiting to get portrait pictures taken.  Once this got done, we dropped the youngest one at home with my parents and went to a friend’s housewarming function.

So, before leaving for the photo session, we are all busy trying to get the three ready in pattu pavadais and matching jewellery. Since R(alias the Avial family clown!)  got ready first, I asked H to put her jacket on. H was busy talking to my dad and did not hear her ask him repeatedly to zip her jacket up.    Finally when he realised what he wanted he told her “Sheri pa, one minute wait pannu”. So she goes “I not appa, appa!”   The next 5 minutes saw all of us ROFL

I have enrolled Na in Balvihar classes in a school nearby. These take place on Sunday mornings between 10 and 12.  Na has a lot of fun in these classes and recounts all the songs/stories that she hears from her “BalVihar Teacher”. Since the fees for the classes covers the attendance for the family, this week I decided to take R also to the classes.    Although I had my reservations about her, R also had fun, but  she took sometime chilling out with all the folks there.  I guess a crowd of almost 30 kids and their parents overwhelmed her initially

My father accompanies me to these classes and we both are astounded every time we see the crowd for these classes.  So many people religiously attending these classes and sharing ideas and that too in a foreign land is really amazing and inspiring.  My dad keeps recollecting that 40 years ago, he used to facilitate Balvihar classes in his own apartment in Bombay and today he is seeing a school full of students of all ages!

Thank you Chinmaya mission for providing this wonderful opportunity to us “desis” in this land!

On another note, this weekend, i.e.  23rd of October Chinmaya mission is conducting a walkathon. It is a charity event to raise funds primarily for rural development as per their blog (http://cmtccordwalkinfo.blogspot.com/).  If any of you are in the area and wish to take part in the walkathon please definitely do.  If you wish to contribute monetarily to this cause,  you can use this link https://cord.dojiggy.com/pledge/index.cfm?585F22080A70647471650147515B357A050A05740171.

Signing off, below is a picture of a lamp that Na made at the Balvihar class this weekend. Really proud of her work since she told me that she did the entire thing herself!   I am so glad she is also bitten by the creative bug..

So tell me, how was your weekend?

Ciao for now,

Shankari

This year, H built me a wooden stand with five steps. This and the fact that my parents were here to celebrate Navratri for the first time with me, inspired me to set up the golu on a grand scale.  The five steps had mostly traditional dolls and on the side Narad and I made a small Christmas village which came out pretty good I must say

It was a lot of fun though, meeting up with old friends and family and making new ones.

Below are a few pictures of this year’s golu.

Ciao for now,

Shankari.