ಆದರೆ ದಿನದ ಕೆಲವು ಕ್ಷಣಗಳು ಇರುತ್ತವೆ – ನಮಗೆ ಯಾರು ಇಲ್ಲವೆನ್ನಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ, ಯಾವುದೂ ಬೇಡವಾಗಿರುತ್ತದೆ – ನಾವು ಎಷ್ಟು ಒಬ್ಬಂಟಿಗರು ಎನ್ನುವ ಕಹಿ ಭಾವನೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನದ ತಿಳಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಬೇಸರದ ಅಲೆಗಳನ್ನು ಎಬ್ಬಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಅದಕ್ಕೇ ಇರಬೇಕು ಮನುಷ್ಯ ಇಷ್ಟು ವೈಜ್ಞಾನಿಕವಾಗಿ ಹಾಗು ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಂದುವರಿದರೂ ಎಲ್ಲೋ ಒಂದು ಕಡೆ – ಆ ‘ದೇವನಿರುವನು’ ಎಂಬುದು ಒಂದು ನಿಶ್ಚಲ ಸತ್ಯ, ಎಂದು ಇನ್ನೂ ನಂಬಿದ್ದಾನೆ. ಜಗತ್ತಿನ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಸಂಬಂಧಗಳ ಬಂಧನಗಳಿಂದ ಮುಕ್ತರಾಗಲು ನಾವು ದೇವರ ಮೊರೆ ಹೊಕ್ಕುತ್ತೇವೆ!

And now suddenly in the past week, he has taken to the idea of being up on his two feet and walking towards us when we beckon. It’s a game he thinks, when we make him stand and say puttu puttu hejje, he claps his hands, tries repeating the words, does a little jig, imitates us doing a baa-baa with his tiny hands and totters towards us with squeals of delight and a broad bunny-tooth-ed smile He takes 4-5 steps and either plonks down or takes a lunge towards us in a spate of giggles. And then depending on his mood, he either wants more – asks us to lift him up and repeat the exercise, or crawls away if he spies something else of interest.

Among other developments, his vocabulary has increased so much! He is constantly uttering new words every few days and we are amazed by them. He now says kose(close), bukku/ bukka(book), yed(red), aeight(light), kaa(car), bus, baa(ball), kash (catch), adu (that), idu (this), ochhi (oushadhi – medicine), mam-mam (food), bikki (biscuit), appa, amma, ajji, akka, paapa, boochi (insect), kachchi (suddenly uttered yesterday by looking at the mosquitoes in the Mortein ad!!), ta-ta, pitha-pitha (for the serial Muktha Muktha, the title song of which is his favourite) etc. He also makes several sounds like bow-bow, ambaaa, grrr (roar), aishshh (imitating the cooker whistles)… he also points out so many objects correctly now – the animals like dog, cat, horse, hen, duck; objects like ball, car, bus, teddy, bottle, paapa(baby) etc in his favourite “First 100 words” book (which is already dog-eared by all the rough treatment!) and several others like the toothbrush (at which he does a eeeee and points to his teeth), soap, mixie in another book depicting household items. He points out the various body parts – eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth, chin, head and tummy!

It is amazing to watch the coordination of his hands when he plays, especially when he’s given a small box and items which can go into that – he repeatedly puts different items inside, closes the lid (saying kose), shakes it to hear the sound and opens and repeats the process (when he’s unable to open himself, he throws a mini tantrum and points the box at you asking you to open saying adu, adu, adu constantly!). Like all new-age kids, the remotes and phone are his favourite things to play around with (probably because that’s what he sees us using the most! lessons for us parents ) During the play, he picks random objects keeps them to his ear and says ‘ayello‘ (hello) in the cutest way imaginable!

But the sweetest and most significant development according to me is – during the Diwali week he started saying amma and actually addressing/ pointing to me while saying so! I’d written here about how he first said the words amma, but after that it had been mostly confined to his crying times – that was the only time he would utter the word. Of late, when asked where is amma, he would point out to my photo! (Just imagine how heart-breaking that was for me! ) Did my baby really not know who his amma is? I’d worry. And just like that one day (while we were in Chennai), he clearly said amma and pointed to me. I was thrilled beyond words! The greatest joy that motherhood brings is when you hear your little soul say ‘amma’ in his/ her clear, sweet, warbly voice!

And thus my dear readers, it has been an eventful festive season, where we’ve had an amazing and heart-warming experience of watching our baby gain the confidence and balance to take his first steps; a bitter-sweet realization that our little one has grown up already and has taken that huge first step towards independence!

How has your Diwali been? Hope all of you had a bright, sparkling and safe Deepavali!

And what best to start on than the ‘talk of the town’? Namma Metro! Yes! It is finally here! Today at 4 PM the inaugural run of Reach 1, is scheduled to be flagged off between the MG Road and the Byappanahalli stretch. As this article will tell you, the trains will stop at Trinity, Halasuru, Indiranagar and Swami Vivekananda Road stations for 30 seconds each and the frequency of the trains will be 10 minutes. From tomorrow the regular services are slated to be started from 6 AM in each direction between Byappanahalli and MG Road.

Can you tell that I am super-excited! Gosh! We will finally have the metro zipping across our city! Though it is just a single line being started at the moment, it is a giant step taken, I feel. Better late than never! If there is one thing that was lacking in our city, according to me, it was the metro rail transport system. Having been in several cities abroad and in India and seeing how much difference having a metro makes to the time taken to commute within the city, I always felt that Bangalore sorely missed having one. I thought that it was one aspect of planning for the city which had been left undone too late, cities like London and Paris have an excellent inter-city and suburban rail transport system that was designed and built nearly 100 years ago. If they could do it then, why couldn’t we? Well, I suppose nobody anticipated the kind of bludgeoning growth that the city witnessed in the last few decades, but still, realizing that plan on paper was much delayed.

As the chairman of the commission’s working group and MD of Delhi Metro Railway Corporation (DMRC) E Sreedharan says: “Seven cities are already building the Metro. If the city’s population is 2 million, they must start planning for a Metro now. To me, the Metro rail should be a revolution in urban transport. How else are we going to handle this urbanization that’s going on at a frenetic pace? Buses can cope with just 8,000 passengers per hour.”

Rants aside, I am truly, really, amazingly and goose-bumped-ly happy that I am part of the generation that witnessed the metro services being launched in Bangalore. Did you know that our metro is really high on tech?

Check these out:

•  Ballastless track system
•  Electricity runs on third rail
•  Wi-fi enabled coaches, internet access
•  Emergency call button
•  Voice communication/speaker system between passengers, driver and control centre
•  CCTVs inside stations and trains
•  Automatic train supervision, safety and protection that will sense another train on the same track and come to a halt
•  Stainless steel coaches made by Hyundai Rotem and Mitsubishi
•  Automatic ticketing
•  Recharge of metro cards through mobiles and SMS, a first in the world

Wow! Isn’t that amazing?! In fact it is supposed to be so stable that you can drink your coffee without spilling a drop, as this article will tell you. The logo for the metro is the Rangoli. In the words of the designers Jayanth Jain and Mahendra Kumar: “Rangoli has been an intrinsic part of Bangalore’s culture. With the explosion in vehicle population, it faced the prospect of being lost forever. We wanted to revive this traditional art while depicting the seamless, continuous connectivity of the Metro covering all parts of the city, and it became the inspiration for the logo”

The route map for Phase-1 according to their website is this:

But as many of us have seen and need to know, the journey hasn’t been easy. If there is one man who has taken all the brickbats till now and needs the bouquets, it is N Sivasailam. He has led from the front and has overcome a lot of adverse situations to bring the metro to us. You can read some instances and the team’s experiences here. It has left a lot of broken hearts especially with the demolitions – no compensation can replace their loss; but in retrospect, it was something that we as Bangalore citizens needed the most. So, it is hats off Mr.Sivasailam and his relentless team. We’re proud of you and thank you wholeheartedly.

On this eve, E Sreedharan , in his message to Bangalore says:

“I want Bangalore Metro to be the best. Bangaloreans must take pride in their first mass rapid transit system. With this, we’ve proved to the world that we can construct world-class transport systems”

We definitely are a proud and happy lot! Now, all that I need to do is go to MG Road and hop on to the metro and take a joy-ride! I am eagerly looking forward to doing that!

Rants aside, it would be an understatement to say that this has been the most exciting and life- & lifestyle-changing year of my life! Firstly it really is unbelievable that a year has passed by -  a year? 365 days? since he was born? I feel like saying – gosh, you must be kidding! Wasn’t it recently that I was waiting impatiently for my due date? The day when I had those incredible pains that went on and on for hours – all to culminate at the surgery table 10 hours later and voila! there he was – wailing his lungs out in the next 10 mins. It was surreal in my then groggy state of anasthesia, to be looking at that baby being held out – it was mine! It was what we’d all been waiting for, those 9 months! He was my flesh and blood. He was my b-a-b-y!!And those following weeks/ months of emotional upheavals – of pain, pleasure, angst, confusion, joy, tears, helplessness, ecstasy… Now you say, it’s all in the past?? A year ago?

But it’s true. Incredible, but true. He has turned a year old, already. He is no longer a helpless infant, he’s a baby with thoughts, actions and a personality of his own. There are so many developments that I don’t know where to begin… he understands most of what we tell him and reacts in his own sweet way. He knows all his dolls by names and looks for them when asked, and brings them to us. He talks so many words in his baby-tongue and makes gestures to match. He points out to his head, nose and tummy – though he seems to be a little confused as to where exactly his tummy is! All other babies, not necessarily younger to him as paapa/ paapachi for him and he loves interacting with them. In fact any photo/ face on any magazine, paper, poster etc is paapa – including the doggy on his favourite poster at home! He holds his hand out for a sweet handshake and tries to touch and make friends with other babies. Anybody who greets him is responded to with a ready smile and a wave of hands – including random strangers at traffic signals. He does a dutiful namaste when asked to and devoutly listens as his appa helps him with his prayers after his daily bath.

He listens and points to a doggy bark and tries to imitate it with his bow-bow. He loves looking at the touch-n-feel Fluffy bunnies book that he got as a birthday present and grins as his mother reads it out, in her typical sing-song fashion. The kitchen utensils are still his favourite playthings and he rushes to grab them – especially the spoons, which he knows he has to dig out from the bottom of the tub which holds all the washed vessels. He waits for amma to come home from work and rushes to her the minute he sees her and isn’t satisfied till she lifts him into her arms. The contented smile and the way he touches and feels me all over my face and hands then, is something that wrenches my gut every single day! He loves his appa no less and actually cries while bidding him bye to work, even though he is perched on (an indignant)amma’s waist and she is cooing sweet nothings into his ears. Did I say that he loves trying out new types of food – considering that his appa-amma have deprived him of all tasty and adult food for so long, given a chance, he doesn’t lose a moment to grab at any eatable within his reach and pop it into his mouth. And if likes the taste of it, he gives a grin and does a little jig to express his joy! I could just go on and on… but it really is difficult to capture his every action in words.

On the actual birthday we took him on his first visit to offer prayers to the home-deity and the celebration with homas/ pooja and cake-cutting was planned for a later date. The celebration occasion brought us all much joy. Albeit being a little unwell, he behaved irreproachably and was a darling through-out – even in the stuffy atmosphere, with the homas/ pooja going on. He went to everyone with a ready smile and was generally a happy child, enjoying all the attention being bestowed upon him. We were happy too with the way things turned out. Initially we weren’t quite planning to have a celebration by inviting relatives and friends – thought we’d done enough of that. We felt it would be more satisfying and meaningful to celebrate by being part of a social cause. But then decided to also have a small-scale function, mainly for the kiddo’s sake – I don’t want him to come back to me later with regret that he never got to celebrate his first year birthday. Though it might not mean much to him now, it will rankle in later years.

I handpicked and packed the gifts for all his little friends with a thank-you note; age-appropriate books ordered from Pratham with some accompanying dolls/ sweets. We also didn’t want to give regular plastic/ metal gifts with the taamboola – and decided to give potted plants which would be low maintenance and used indoors/ outdoors as desired. People found it surprising/ offending(?) or laughable, but I’m happy that we stuck with our choice – it brought us immense happiness to contribute to the green cause on this special occasion, albeit in a small way.

All in all, it has been a eventful year and we can’t thank the lord enough for bringing this joy into our lives. I pray for his long life, health and happiness always and look forward eagerly to every moment of his growing-up years. A very very very happy first year birthday to you my puttu-kanda! You bring a purpose to our existence. You take us back to our child-like ways and help us feel the purity of unadulterated innocence and joy that one can enjoy only as a child. You are a tiny being as yet, but you fill what would otherwise have been a mammoth void at the centre-point of our universe. You complete us. Thank you for being you – may you continue to be as naughty, playful, joyous and smiling as you are now, always!

My little kiddo is growing up so fast – his every antic is so cute and he has new ones up his sleeve every few days! I want to capture it all for posterity – catch it on film, ink it on paper, carve it in my memories, but most often I end up just living and enjoying the moment with him, which too matters at the end of day, I think…

His latest is the way he’s learnt to bob his head up and down especially when he hears some music that he likes- the title song of the Kannada serial Muktha Muktha is a clear favourite, the Tata Docomo ad jingle, and a few others – and here I am trying to steer him away from the television! sigh! He clearly demonstrates how much he’s enjoying it – sitting on his knees, waving his hands and bobbing his head in sync with the rhythm with his lovely smile.

He also jabbers nineteen to the dozen in his baby language – apoum, bapaoum, kappiti, gapuchi, and various other sounds that only he understands at the moment. While being unintentionally funny, it is absolutely adorable to hear his baby voice talking gibberish around the house

Sometimes when he is in one of his most naughty moods and insists on following me around the kitchen and pulling out all drawers and cabinets, I hand him the kitchen towel or a piece of cloth and that keeps him busy – he intently flogs it around like the dhobhis and what’s more funny is – in case he spots some other piece of interest like his red car and reaches out for it, he takes a moment to stop and carry the cloth along in one hand while he grabs the car in the other

His screaming phase is back again – if he is not fed the moment he eyes the food, he brings the house down with his screams! If he finds that his appa and amma are having a conversation instead of paying him attention, he makes himself heard loud and clear!

He is sprouting another top tooth and I’m sure he’ll have two happy bunny teeth by his first year birthday!

He is with his grandma from morning till evening while we’re both at work – apparently no sooner does the clock strike 7, he’s at the door – as if he knows that it’s time to go home with his appa, amma – the first time I heard about this, it broke my heart! Even now, I think of it and my mind conjures up an image of the tiny guy waiting at the door with anticipation and there’s a pang and a twisty knotty feeling inside my stomach. Why, oh why? I ask and it sounds like mere rhetoric

But the results of that wait are sweet – the moment he comes home with his appa and knocks at the door, he knows that I am behind it and will open the door for him; he reserves the loveliest, most joyous and welcoming smile for me!! I love that moment and wait for it in happy anticipation – his one smile fills my heart with joy! He rushes into my arms and is happy being cuddled, but only till he spots something else shiny to divert his attention! Well, we moms live for such fleeting moments, don’t we?!

So, what has your little one been upto these days?

Just as I was telling you about the first tooth, within a week of that appearing, 2 more were spotted… one day there were none and then there were three! And now, it looks like a proper toothy grin!

The standing-up now being mastered, he’s walking around holding onto stuff… if I’m sitting on the bean bag, his favourite activity is holding onto me and pulling himself up and then it begins – from me to the chairs which are atleast an arm’s distance away – from there onto the sofa chair and then back again…there will be moments when his hold isn’t good enough and he finds his steps faltering, he gives a small cry and steadies himself soon and is back at it with renewed zest! His grandma was heard reporting that he walked the entire length of the living room by holding onto a stool and pushing it along, all by himself! At this rate he’ll be pattering around soon.

He crawls around the entire house – standing up, throwing things down, pulling them apart – his favourite activities are pulling out the washed utensils from the tub when I bring them into the kitchen in the evenings. He loves looking at the microwave and no matter where he is, he bounds into the kitchen as soon as I turn it on and sits and watches it mersmerised. He is alternately fascinated or scared (that depends on whether he’s perched on my waist or not! ) by the sounds made by the mixer grinder and the cooker. He loves pulling out the kitchen cabinet drawers and putting his fingers into their crevices and generally driving me crazy with worry that his fingers will get caught in one of them!

He’s taken to scolding us if we scold him! Dunno from whom he picked it up, but the moment we apprehend him even lightly, he points his index finger – sometimes with both hands(?!!) and goes thi thi thi or hath hath in a commanding voice! We were so surprised and felt guilty looking at that and also amazed at how quickly kids pick up nuances and that too the wrong ones! Just the other day, he was having a go at the cooker when it was blowing its whistle off – apparently his highness didn’t like the loud noises emanating from it! I find it incredibly cute the way he goes about doing it – that’s the foolish and fond mother in me speaking, although I know it is one thing that he’s better not picking up from us!

How time flies! At the same time last year, I was counting the weeks and rueing that the due date wasn’t approaching fast enough and now, we’re here – nearly a year completed! A few more weeks and he’ll be a year old! Gosh! My darling baby, please don’t grow up so soon!!

As promised, here’s a post in pictures…

pliss to ignore the junk piled on the sofas and the random nappies lying around… all this needs to be excused in households which are inhabited by little tykes like the one seen above

- He’s standing up more easily now… in fact the tiniest bit of support he can latch onto – be it the corner of a stool, the leg of a chair or easier still, a corner of amma’s dress within his reach, he’s up on his legs!

- We’ve moved to a bigger place – all for the sake of his highness! The idea was that with a bigger hall space for him to move around, it’ll be easier for me to get my stuff done. But the brat that he is insists on following me around wherever I go and using the aforesaid salwar suit’s corner to pull himself up to a tottering position, which gives me the jitters every single time!

- The babbling continues and sometimes he even has a conversation with us, mostly his dad – saying ‘aye’ to each other in a domineering tone – guess they’re competing for the title of ‘the man of the house’ already!

- The edge of his first little tooth has cut through his gums now in his tenth month(though the toothy-whiteness was visible for quite sometime now, it took its own sweet time to make a grand entrance!) and I am so stoked each time I look at it! I think it is sooo adorably cute!

- When I leave him on the floor in the bedroom and am busy getting ready in the mornings, he plays for sometime and invariably finds his way to the long dressing mirror and pulls himself up to peer into it. My favourite part is where he looks at himself with various expressions flitting across his face, first frowns, then smiles, then takes his face near and touches the mirror, then tries to put it into his mouth as he does with everything else – or he’s trying to kiss, maybe? Clearly he’s fascinated! It’s such a joy to watch him and I leave all that I’m doing and rush to get his dad to watch this awww scene

- I was over at my parents’ place for the weekend and within a day, the grandfather has taught his grandson to wave when anyone says ta-ta or bye! I was so amazed! Now all one needs to do is go towards the door and say bye and this little fella gives a gorgeous smile and puts out his tiny hand and waves in his ooh-so-cute-manner!

- Also over the weekend he’s definitely learnt to say amma!! Though he’s said it a few times earlier, it used be like thrown in once in a while along with the other sounds he’d make when wailing…but now he clearly beseechingly calls out amma and comes looking for me, asking me to pick him up! Oh! the joy…!

- We went on our first trip with the little one, to Kerala to attend a friend’s wedding and he really behaved well, without giving us undue trouble…he’d cry no doubt, but only when he was hungry or tired and sleepy – but overall, he helped us manage beautifully especially on the long drives in the car, without being cranky as we’d feared. Thanks for that, my munchkin! He also got his first whiff of the sea-breeze and loved it, though we can’t say the same about his experience with the waves! He bawled when we made him stand as the waves came in… but he loved the sights and being carried around the beach.

Amongst other things, there’s a lot happening on the home front – as I mentioned earlier we moved onto a bigger rented place to stay – though we loved our first home and it was convenient for us as a couple, the equation changed when the little one entered our lives – the internal staircase and the limited hall-space wasn’t quite working and we decided to move. This house is very spacious and works for all of us better and we’re getting used to it now… hope we build some lovely memories here as well!

Also, I’m in a middle of changing jobs – after sticking on at my first workplace for a very long time, I finally thought it best to move on and luckily also got a good offer at the right time. Though the parting was difficult (aren’t first jobs always like that?) it had to be made. I made some great friends there and some associations which go much beyond being just colleagues – I can definitely say that they’ve made a lot of difference in my life. Thanks folks! I hope I can find equally good friends and an environment that I like working in, at the new place too! *Keeping fingers crossed*!

And finally, I got myself a new hair-cut, like for the first time ever! People who know me will be very surprised, I can tell! Well, it isn’t exactly what I went out looking for, but now that it’s done, there’s no looking back… The reactions haven’t been non-supportive so far and I hope it remains that way… it’s funny, how much we have to worry sometimes for something as simple as a hair-cut! Or maybe, it’s just me!

Now, here’s the cue for you to say – wah re wah Anu, naya ghar, nayi job, nayi hair-cut…kya baat hai!

And boy! Did we do it in style?! To be frank, my heart sank when we lost Sachin and Sehwag quickly; the way they were going all guns blazing, I was sure we’d win if they’d just continued to play like that till about mid-way. Just then, they fell one after the other and I didn’t fancy our chances, even though Yuvraj was in good form. But then the skipper chose to rise to the occasion and he did it with such panache! He was brilliantly supported by Gautam Gambhir at the other end (who was plain stupid to have missed out on his ton! aarrgh!) and then Suresh Raina. If you ask me, the key to our turn-around in this world cup has been Suresh Raina, the moment he came back in the middle order, the team looked totally different, he played crucial knocks in all the important matches and built brilliant partnerships just when the hour demanded it.

Finally, that look on Dhoni’s face as he scored the winning runs off a six said it all and that’s gonna remain in my memory for a long long time. That and several other scenes of jubilation – Yuvraj sobbing, the glow of pure bliss on Sachin’s face, Kohli’s words about carrying Sachin on his shoulders – ‘he’s carried the dreams of a billion people for 21 odd years, it’s high time that we take the weight of his shoulders’ or something to that effect… stuff that only dreams are made of.

When I talk of dreams, it’s also been a year since I wrote this mushy post (hmm…I wonder now, must’ve been them, the harmones! ) – so it means it’s time to hi-five! Five years of being married, phew! On the day, we spent some time trying to recollect how we’d spent the day on each of the past years – or rather I bullied the husband into recollecting. Or it would be more apt to say that I recollected while he hmm-ed and haa-ed… what is it with men and their memories eh? I detailed out all of them, except the second anniversary which I for some unknown reason can’t recollect a minute-of and the husband insists it was when I bought my favourite necklace at CKC (trust him to remember such things eh? ) This year of married life has been special, with the little munchkin entering our lives and seeking out all our attention and love. So much so, that there is no moment or event that can be recollected as being complete without him being a part of it

Speaking of him, he’s as mischievous and as sprightly as ever – racing across the floor in a flash, sometimes with such gusto and so many squeals that I get scared he’ll hurt himself! He pulls himself up into a standing pose at every given opportunity and wants to walk. He’s already negotiating the steps of the staircase with such ease and glee that it’s an absolute delight to watch him – I’m tempted to stand back and look on, even as I should be behind him protecting him from a possible fall. He’s babbling various sounds – started off with attha and akka… and now says baa baa, taa taa, maa maa and many more in his lovely baby tongue that is pure music to my ears He’s also become a lot more clingy in terms of wanting me to carry him all the time when I’m around – he’s fine playing by himself, but the moment he sees me, he has to come to me.

Sometimes as he plays with his toys/ cups and is sitting on his knees with his feet tucked behind him and his back to me, I look down and watch the little head bobbing from side to side with his silky hair spread across the smooth nape and the cute little shoulders supporting the even cuter antics of his baby hands and am filled with such an ache that I wanna just grab him and hold him tight and smother him with hugs and kisses… doesn’t make sense, does it? Well, you gotta make allowances for a mother’s gushing…

The world cup is on… but sadly I feel that the accompanying fever is missing… even though it is being held in the sub-continent and India are touted to be the hot favourites to bring home the cup after 28 years… even though our team is one of the best (on paper, that is)… even though Sachin is playing in what will probably be his last World Cup before retirement and is all fired up to add that one elusive feather to his cap… I still feel that the fever is missing… I am somehow not convinced that we will go on to win the cup… and my initial gut feeling has only been fortified looking at our performances so far – it has been insipid! After making 300+ scores batting first, we have allowed opponent teams to make huge scores chasing – including Bangladesh (which incidentally got skittled out for 58 against the WI!!) – or making small totals seem like mountains while chasing against the minnows – case in point: Ireland, Netherlands.

As an aside, wasn’t the England-Ireland tie a cracker of a match?! Absolutely wonderful achievement for the Irish – just imagine, in all the years of World cup history, they now have these records in their names – the fastest ever 100 scored in a WC match and the highest ever run chase! Just imagine! this distinction does not belong to any of the elite cricket super-powers like Australia or SA or India, it will be etched in sands of time as belonging to the Irish!! Amazing achievement!!

In the one important match that India played till now, our team frittered away all the good work done by the top order and folded up for much less than the expected score and then allowed England to get within clawing distance of a victory and settled for a tie and made that seem like an achievement – I’ve been more or less dusgusted with our performances so far. Maybe it’s just me! May be I am growing old… I don’t seem to be enjoying this world cup! May be it is extended post-baby blues

Amongst other news, life’s become hectic – each day is one l-o-n-g affair with a list of chores to be done one after another – I hardly find any me-time – in fact I feel I can relax a bit only at office and never once at home – not even the weekends! I wonder how long it will be before I settle down to a comfortable routine which gives me enough time for everything? – probably never!

On the brighter side, our little monkey is doing new stuff everyday and is a joy to behold. He’s learnt to crawl (the process of how he learnt it is amazing!) and now just bounds across the floor to get at anything that catches his fancy. He’s now already progressing onto climbing onto whatever is climb-able in his reach – easiest target being his appa when he’s blocking his way! He’s learnt to screech big time and does it all the time when he’s not pleased and sometimes even when he’s pleased, just to drive us nuts! He’s officially become amma’s boy – he wants me to carry him, put him to sleep, feed him, hold him – basically do everything and screams non-stop till I do it – appa is not amused and neither is amma! He has learnt to do taaramayya with his hands – but of course will not comply when his amma asks, it is done according to his whims and fancies! His toothless smile and the accompanying warbling grrr… (I wish I could reproduce the exact sound here – it is absolutely adorable!) is still the bestest, though I see signs of the first lower teeth appearing shortly!

His pranks, the naughty expressions in his eyes, his yelps and whoops of joy, his bath-time playfulness, the wonder with which he looks at his hands and turns them around, the intent seriousness with which he pursues his plaything by chasing it across the floor crawling, the way he suddenly looks up on his name/ gundumaama (which is my present favourite name for addressing him ) being called and gives that gorgeous smile – each moment and action is priceless and makes me want to record it all for posterity. He’s already half a year old and at the rate in which the days are whizzing by, he’ll soon be bounding past other milestones!

Well, that’s the update from me… my posts seem to have become a monthly feature now! Gosh! In a way, I suppose that’s a good thing, considering that I am not finding time for anything else that I want to do otherwise!