"Riddhie's.."

“Baybeeeee…..”

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000

“Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father…”

- Roger von Oech (President, Creative Think)

Dear Riddhie,

I shall keep this one really short and let the picture stand up for the thousand words it is supposed to make up for. I took this set one fine evening post dinner when we were trying to settle you down and put you to bed. Your mom brought out your bottle of milk but it seemed you had other plans.

Unwilling to sleep, you picked up your doll which you fondly keep referring to as ‘Baybeeee’ and started patting her. It took us a while to understand that your patting her was the way we rocked you to sleep. Incidentally your doll’s accessories, amongst other things included a replica sponge milk bottle and after having patted your doll for about 10 minutes or so, you got down to the act of feeding it.

This was the very first time that you had done something like this and we were really amused at your entire role play. We as your parents stood there transfixed watching you do things as they came to you. For once, I was glad that I always kept a camera charged and ready at hand.

Here are a few I clicked and I guess they more or less speak for themselves.

Love,

Dad.

I Scream.. Ice Cream…..

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:00:00 +0000

“I doubt whether the world holds for any one a more soul-stirring surprise than the first adventure with ice-cream…”

- Heywood Broun

Dear Riddhie,

By the time you read this and if I am around just as fat as I am now, I guess you would know that a major reason for my being so is my sweet tooth and craving for ice-cream :) I am sure as a father – daughter duo we would have shared umpteen cones and tubs by now but then I guess there is no story which doesn’t sound better with a scoop of pure vanilla and some roasted nuts. So, maybe you would want to go and get some before you read this further. :D

I shall ensure that you have plenty of ‘sweet’ (literally) memories around with me in years to come. But for now, let me share this little incident which happened sometime around middle of March 2012.

We were coming back from a shopping spree after having our lunch at a nearby restaurant when I decided to stop by at a Carvel store (much against your mother’s wishes though) on our way back and picked up these little jars of frozen yogurt and chocolate chip ice-cream. You were probably exhausted from the day’s activities and were a little cranky and we decided to box everything and head home rather than have it there.

Once we were home, I opened up the wraps and set those ice-cream jars on the table and went inside for a brief moment. I would have gone just for a minute or so, but I guess that was all the time that you needed. When I came back into the room, I saw you nicely perched atop the table and helping yourself to your choice of flavors, as best as you could. Since, you were still trying to learn how to use a spoon and all and it was but natural that most of what you picked in the spoon fell over your dress and arms and legs before it could make it to your mouth. Your mom was furious at you (understandably so, since that meant she had to give you another bath) but I was more amused and your struggle and wanting to try out every flavor and unwillingness to give up made an interestingly funny sight.

As always I jumped to get my camera and managed to click a few pictures. I guess, right when I saw you then I knew I would be making this post. I am sure in the years ahead these little joys of parenthood would be lost to realms of time but for now I can’t help going back and looking at these pics time and again and smiling. Here are a few for you to smile and come running to me…. :)

Love,

Dad.

The First Few…

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:00:00 +0000

“The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences…”

- St. Augustine

Dear Riddhie,

I read it somewhere that when you don’t have enough dots to connect, you come out with linear solutions without a broader perspective on the problem. The entire design and way of dealing with problems changes when you have a broader understanding of the human experience. I guess it is thus both enriching for the soul and nourishing for the intellect to try out various things and gather all new experiences you can.

Having said the above, let me clarify that this doesn’t permit you to go and be wild and live on the edge all in the name of an experience and I would expect you to be wise enough to take a sound call based on your intelligence to know the difference between what is right and worth giving a shot and what is not.

Coming back to this letter, let me narrate a couple of your first experiences in the last couple of weeks. These are little things and probably do not account for a separate post but nonetheless worthy enough of you being told about them.

THE BOWLING ALLEY: Beginning in a chronological order, the Saturday of February 25, 2012 became your first visit to a bowling alley. To tell you something, I was first introduced to the game of bowling and the concept of a bowling alley through Archie comic books. Back then, during those years of my growing up, very few people around me could relate to the sport. It wasn’t until years later during the early 2000s a couple of humble 4-6 lane alleys mushroomed up in the “global” village of Gurgaon where we would go once in a while. I can still do fairly OK at the sport and when on this particular Saturday your Diana aunty invited us to join them for a game, I was happy to take you along and see how you react to the atmosphere.

However, the flip side was that it was a fairly long drive to the place and you kind of fell asleep on the way. We had a good game and though you only woke up by the end of it, you were delighted at the sight of people around and enjoyed seeing what everyone was up to.

Here are a few of your pictures from the day.

THE BOATING EXCURSION: Actually your very first boat ride was when we took you for sight seeing at the Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty but I guess you were hardly a few months old then and could hardly make out a difference between a car and a boat so in effect this little boat ride we took on April 29, 2012 at the Marsh Creek State Park in PA becomes entitled to be called your first ever boat ride.

I was actually a little apprehensive to take you on board as I was unsure of how you would react to the entire episode and my fears were realized as soon as 15 minutes into the boat ride. You first wanted to stand up from where you were sitting and next wanted to hold onto a side and see water flow by. The next we knew, you were ready to take a dive and jump into the water. Probably you saw the entire lake as a big bath tub and were excited by the volume of water around you. Needless to add that it took us a while to take your mind off the jump and have you enjoy the view around. Somehow we managed to linger on for a few more minutes before deciding to cut short the ride and head ashore. It was interesting to note that once you were out, you wanted to go back in and enjoy the ride all over again. But, for us, I guess we had our lesson and decided not to repeat this until you were a little older to better understand the concept of depths and water bodies and boat rides.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

I am sure in posts ahead I shall have many more ‘firsts’ to talk about and maybe by the time you get to read all this stuff, most of these things would be so tried out that you would have lost interest in perhaps half of these things. Whatever, be the case, I guess I shall keep playing my part and document all I can, while I can :)

Love,

Dad.

The Busy Bee…

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 02:00:00 +0000

“Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night.…”

Dear Riddhie,

This one is a short anecdote of one of the first times you got yourself busy on your own and did not care for any attention or constant vigilance.

The date was February 26, 2012 and your mom was out to attend a Zumba class she had signed for recently. We dropped your mom and came back to the apartment and had about 2 hours to spend before we had to go and pick her up again. My plan of action was simple – I had to keep you interested and entertained or busy with something so that you did not start crying for your mom.

So, together we kicked some ball, poured some juice, played some music and watched some TV. However, you were a little restless and nothing seemed to hold your attention for more than 10 minutes at a stretch. I tried all your toys, kept making funny faces and indulged you with chocolates and cookies and was about to run out of ideas when you went ahead and picked up an empty camera case lying about on one of the drawers in the living room. It was probably something you had not laid your hands on before and all of a sudden you were all interested in exploring the pockets and the contents of the case and sat down working intently at it with your little hands.

It was both funny and mesmerizing to watch you play on unperturbed and engrossed in your little game. An important lesson of life was reiterated that joys and happiness in life is often attributed to simple things and wants. I couldn’t help smiling watching you work that case with full intensity and your tongue sticking out. Needless to say, I seized this opportunity and clicked a few pictures watching you play and fidget around with the case and be my little busy bee. Here they are…

Love,

Dad.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 02:00:00 +0000

“Fate chooses our relatives, we choose our friends…”

Dear Riddhie,

Friendship is an important lesson and integral relationship in life. I am sure as you grow up, begin your formal education and find your place in the world you would make many friends. There would be few who would stand by you and support you in your times of need and there would be others who would get you in trouble and drag you down with them. However, every person you meet would enrich your experience and will help you become worldly wise.

Few days ago I happened to hear someone at work talk about how his youngest daughter who had just entered her teens doesn’t listen to him anymore and is obsessed with her phone and circle of friends. I would have passed the story lightly and attributed it to the failure of family structure in the American value system but I could hear the ring of true concern in the voice of that helpless father. He was sincere and his concerns were pretty much real and it disturbed me to think that one of these days I shall probably face a situation like that.

Maybe I am being a little paranoid here but then I have personally known people who would sweetly and easily lie to their folks and do things I am sure their parents would have never approved of, all in the name of friendship.

Very often we live ‘in the moment’ and lose track of the larger scheme and real objectives in life. You may want to go out and be there with a friend from school and give him/her a priority over your studies or lessons today but the chances are that in the long run, most of these people who you see on a daily basis today would be lost to the realms of time and the paths of their own individual lives. Also, my advise to you would be to try and remain unaffected by people who make you look bad today. There is a very good chance that you shall not even see those people ever again in a few years.

No matter how many friends you make over the years there are eventually only three friends that you can and should rely upon – your heart that can tell you what is the right thing to do, your wisdom which can put together a plan to work upon and your hands which would eventually execute your plan. Trust me, no other friend or soul would ever come as close.

You are about 18 months old as I write this letter to you and already have a group of playmates and friends you enjoy playing with. We, as your parents can perhaps choose this and perhaps next few sets of your playmates and pals for you but I guess in a matter of few years, we shall find ourselves alienated on more than one ground and on one of these days you would set out to explore your world on your own.

When that happens, you shall always come across two sets of people – one who would call you and track you day in and out and talk all day long with you but who perhaps won’t be able to come and stand by you when you need a shoulder to lean on and another who would perhaps speak to you once or twice in an year but they would always be around when you look for someone to call upon. I am sure, I don’t need to add which type of people are worth holding on to.

Right now, your mom spends her maximum time with you. She takes care of your needs and teaches you stuff and plays with you and I try and pitch in as much as I can. We, as parents who are the epicenter of your universe right now, would soon outlive our ‘utility’ for you and in a few years you would perhaps be as knowledgeable as us, if not more. While I shall let your mom set the tone of rules about the house and discipline you, I would try and be your pal as long as I can keep pace with you. I have mentioned before in one of my other letters to you that I shall always have time to listen to you and hear you out. Whenever doubt engulfs your thoughts and you are unsure of the right thing to do, you shall always find me waiting on you ready to help, if you need any. Hope you grow up to be wise enough to see through the fabric of people and know and realize who your real friends are.

With this thought, let me conclude this letter and with a picture of you with your current peer group.

Love,

Dad.

Two Sick Parents and a Hyper Baby…

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

“What happens when your child wants you to get up and play and you just want to hide under the bed and snore…”

Dear Riddhie,

There isn’t much story in this letter except for what is revealed in the subject itself. The last two weeks your mom and I were under the weather struggling with bouts of cold, sore throat and fever one after the other. How cold drains one of a will to do anything physically taxing needs no explanation. However, at your age currently (about 16 months) it could not be explained to you.

With no one else to our aide here, it became imperative for at least one of us to be up and running at all times so as to give you, your needed time and attention. To make matters worse this was the time when you were beginning to get your canines and were irritable and restless as well.

It became kind of a tight rope walk with us balancing between work, life, sickness and your needs. There were evenings (thankfully only a few) when we were reeling under the heavy sedation of a cold and cough syrup and you would be sitting fresh demanding to be taken out or wanting us to play with you.

When I was younger, I had read something about the art of dealing with sickness. I am sure that the lesson learnt during that time was tested to the core. However, just as good days pass away, the bad ones fly off too. We overcame the flu and I resumed my office routine and life returned to normalcy soon.

The little lesson, however for you here is to know and understand that time eventually sets things right and impatience is never fruitful. Life would always spring up a cocktail of good and bad days and would test you for your capacity to handle your concoction. My little advise to you would be to never underestimate the value of a deep breath. When you feel bogged down and irritable, take a long deep breath and exhale a few times. Clear your head, seize control back and move along with renewed patience. Hopefully you should pass your stumbling block with just another go.

Love,

Dad.

Lakdi Ki Kathi…and the first dance moves…

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0000

“I always thought it was a great song, Riddhie proved that it was a masterpiece”

Dear Riddhie,

I shall keep this letter really short and would let the video speak for itself. This letter probably accounts for your very first dance moves and your first signs of affiliation to the sound of music. I don’t remember now how and when we introduced you to this song and perhaps you shall get over it soon, but this still needs a special mention as this song has by far become the most played and listened to song by us in last few weeks.

Every time that this song is played, we find you mesmerized to the tune. Be it day or night, you are drawn to it almost instantly. We did try playing other rhymes and songs for children to hold your attention but the way you react to this song in particular is difficult to describe in words. In fact, your fascination to this song has been so strong that we have been using it time and again as a tool to pacify you when ever you are a bit cranky.

Within a span of few days ‘Lakdi ki kathi…’ has become our anthem and has crept into all ipods, computers and phones and we have been playing it all possible times and places – mornings, evenings and night, washroom, kitchen or in the car. To be honest, we have been playing it so many times that I can repeat the lyrics even in my sleep now.

It feels amazing that the song which first came out when I was a kid still holds its sway and magic over children. It speaks volumes of the genius behind this creative marvel and I guess with this letter I would also like to congratulate and send in my word of thanks to the entire team of Masoom. Maybe I would even drop a note to Mr. Shekhar Kapur (the director of this film) whose blog I have been following in recent times.

For you, let me post in this little video we shot of you swaying and moving your legs to this magical chartbuster of its era.

Love,

Dad.

The Mystery of The Missing Shoe..

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:00:00 +0000

“The title may be reminiscent of some old Enid Blyton classic but honestly, I don’t really know how to tell you this story, the way you experienced it or the way we as your parents witnessed the entire episode. It would have been so much better if I had shot a video of your expressions the time when you found your lost treasure but I guess we were so lost at the look of sheer exuberance on your face that we just stood there reveling in your joy. ”

Dear Riddhie,

Of all habits that you have picked up over last few weeks perhaps the one that we as your parents have been particularly appreciative of, has been your NOT wanting to move around barefoot at all. You bring us your shoes to put them on your feet any time that you are let down from the bed and every time that we plan going out of the house, you are up and ready, dressed or not, with your shoes in your hands, wanting us to help you wear them.

Though your mother ensured you had multiple pair of footwear to go along, at this moment you are particularly fond of one pair of white and pink sneakers that I had got for you. Maybe you like the shade or perhaps it is some comfort factor but the moment you are asked to go get your shoes, you always return with the same pair.

But as it happened, on one of the weekends when we decided to go out for regular grocery shopping your mom could not locate one of the shoes from your favorite pair. She searched for it in all possible places but still could not trace it. After a long but wasteful hunt she came to the conclusion that it perhaps somehow got mixed with the trash and was thrown out accidently. It was quite a possibility since you loved to rummage through the waste bin and shelves and old newspapers and often mixed your stuff with random things. It was however, difficult explaining the situation to you. You kept bringing us the single shoe that was left and kept pestering us to help you wear it even if you had a different pair on.

We tried looking for a similar pair in the market but I guess as it had to be, an exact same pair could not be sought. And so, every time that we decided to go out some place you would come around carrying the single shoe and look at it with your brown puppy eyes and make whining sounds and your mom would turn the house upside down all over again in a vain attempt to look for the missing shoe.

It seemed that no other pair was good enough for you. We kept taking that single shoe away from your hand and you kept bringing it back to us, putting it over the tables and in your toys and everywhere that you thought was special. Finally, your mom and I decided to take it and throw it away as well and just as we were about to do it, your mom suggested that she would just put it in your clothes cabinet and we could throw it with other things before we moved out of the house for good.

And I guess you should be thankful to her since as she went and opened your cabinet and there, to her surprise, she found the other missing shoe neatly tucked between layers of your clothes. We realized that you were so fond of your shoes that you actually had taken one and kept it safe and tucked it in with your clothes. Maybe you had done it knowingly or perhaps as part of your regular play routine, we couldn’t say. But the moment your mom brought the other shoe out, united the two and brought the pair to you, your eyes sparkled bright and you let out such a cry of delight and heart melting smile that we stood transfixed to our place.

I am sure by the time you read this, most of such little things would have lost their meaning. A piece of candy might not bring you the same cheer as it brings you now but nonetheless I would want you to learn and understand how to segregate between pleasure and happiness. A smile often lasts longer than a laughter so let this little story be a reminder to you that while it is important to seek and pursue things that make you laugh, a lasting smile can only come from the contentment that you feel inside and at times while the former can be easily achieved by spending some money, the latter often requires pushing yourself to your limits and testing yourself time and again. I hope you would know what I intend here, for if you can understand this, I am sure I would see you smiling when you come around and see me now.

Love,

Dad.

PS: Just for the records, here is a picture of your first favorite pair of shoes…

Swap The Parents…

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:00:00 +0000

“Every generation comes with its own frame of reference that is often interpreted as radically improper to the one before it. Defiance is an old tool that changes hands every generation and I am sure the script would be no different when you grow up…”

Dear Riddhie,

Looking back at the incident which I am going to narrate now, I would be surprised if you do not grow up to be as brash and rebellious as I had once been. But let me tell you something, swimming against the current slows you down, it also tires you and most often you find yourself being dragged against your will. However, what is important, is to know where you want to be when you get out of the water. Anyway I shall save the lecture for another time and begin narrating the first chapter of your new found free-will with this letter of mine.

It was the Sunday of January 22, 2012 when we stepped out of the house to do our weekly grocery shopping and run a few errands. Your mother dressed you up prim and proper and ensured you were warm enough and well fed. Our destination wasn't really far from the house and before you knew it we arrived at the mall. Like always, you were generally excited with all the lights and glitz and people around and kept throwing smiles at unsuspecting people and we kept hearing random 'awwwwwws' every now and then.

Your mom wanted to check out some clothes and accessories outlet and seeing you all at ease, we decided to take our chances and stepped inside that relatively crowded place. The first 20 minutes went by fantastic - you kept smiling and spent time looking at the display of colors and fabric around and kept to yourself. Your mom in the meantime found a few things she liked and kept trying stuff on as I sat with you outside the try rooms.

However, as time passed, you began running out of patience. You started with low whining and within minutes were crying at the top of your voice. First you wanted to be released from the stroller and just as I did that, you wanted to be out of the store at top speed. The next couple of minutes we spent playing the game of getting you back into the store. I kept running after you to pick you up just as you would step out of the store and carry you back inside and you kept slithering out of my arms to rush outside just as eagerly.

This would have worked fine for some more time if your mom hadn't decided to wrap up her shopping and call me in to check the final selection and of course to pay for the things, which meant that you had to be confined back to your stroller and this certainly did not go too well with you. I am sure everyone in the store had a story to tell when they got a dose of your full vigor, all volume, speaker blasting shrill screams for letting you out of the stroller straps. With no other option to save us further embarrassment, we conceded to your behavior and let you free again. It was a matter of seconds that you made it clear that you did not like it inside and were all ready to run outside again. I am sure by the time we paid up and picked up our bags and stepped out everyone else inside was already praying for us to leave.

The moment we were out, you wanted to take a walk on your own. You shrugged my hand away, pushed your mother's fingers aside and started walking ahead of us, half crying, half irritated, stomping your feet, throwing your arms around and showing us your anger in all possible ways you could express.

Not only this sudden swing in your mood took us by surprise, we were equally shocked to see you wanting to follow your own instinct. However, we were in for a bigger surprise a little later in the day. On our way back I had to make a quick stop at a store to check some travel luggage and having experienced your displeasure on being put in the stroller we decided to just carry you in our arms. As we entered the store and put you down, you decided to run away again.

Your mom asked me to go ahead while she kept an eye over you but you had other ideas. Across the aisle where we stood there stood another couple checking out wares in a show window. You left your mom's hand and walked up to this other couple and started tugging at the trousers of the guy there. Needless to mention that these people were startled as well, but one look at you and they decided to play along a bit. The guy held your hand and you possibly gave her the best of your smiles and then to our sheer shock turned around and waved at us and started saying 'Ta-Ta, Ta-Ta' (your synonym for a bye).

This entire scene perhaps lasted about two minutes. You were unwilling to come back to us and eagerly wanted to go away with your chosen set of new parents. As your mom stepped by to pick you up (Yeah, though tempted, we still did not let you go) you started crying at the top of your voice again. To a bystander, we would have appeared as two 'bachchaa chors' attempting to steal someone else's child.

We did not waste any more time after that and packed you up in the car and drove home immediately. That night as you fell asleep by my side, I kept playing the events of the day gone by in my head and wondered at what would have led you to behave the way you did. I guess more than the shock it was also heart breaking that one of these days you would actually walk ahead, do a 'Ta-Ta-Ta' and move out and then your mom or I won't be able to run after you to pick you up and bring you back.

Well, until that happens...(sigh)...I would savor all I can and enjoy every moment and every new trick that you pick up including all such days where you decide to test our parenting skills.

Love,

Dad.

Driven To The Edge

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

“The trouble with children is that they are not returnable !!!”

- Fyodor Dostoyevski

Dear Riddhie,

Let me begin by asserting that I do not completely share the sentiments of the quote above but nonetheless over this last week you have been testing our patience so much that I can very well understand what Mr. Fyodor would have gone through when he made the above statement.

I have spoken in detail in my last few letters about how you have been picking up new ‘skills’ and want tear every corner down as soon as you wake up in the morning, but these last couple of days have been really exceptional. I believe you are growing up to be a little brat and for once we as your parents are really clueless about how to contain you and restore some bit of sanity in our lives.

To top that, your being a little unwell over the week and becoming exceptionally moody is not really helping the cause very much. Despite several reminders, snatching things from your hands and cleaning up the floor multiple times a day, you still manage to lay your hands on some sort of a confection to put in your mouth. It’s been a tiresome week altogether running after you trying to hold onto things that you love throwing to the ground and watching over you so that you don’t trip over something or hurt yourself while trying to slide from the bed or the sofa or anywhere else that you can climb on.

It is surprising as suddenly you are no longer interested in your toys and either want to play with the dishwasher or fiddle with the keyboards of our laptops or simply want to chew on the remote of the TV. Well, I am sure you would agree now that none of this is really an acceptable code of conduct and not something that we could have allowed you to get away with. However, as I key this in, you continue to share your disagreement with us on the subject and have been raising the pitch, frequency and decibels of your protest by varying your tone of shrieking, howling and crying.

Well, young lady I am sure we shall have our confrontations on other subjects (your choice of clothes and my assessment of your friends or pushing you to achieve better goals for yourself perhaps) in years to come and maybe I shall not always be as condescending and submissive as I am to your mischief now but let me tell you this, that I shall never allow you to turn complete rogue and being a total rebellion will never really work on me no matter how big or small our bone of contention might be.

Maybe for now, I concede my total submission to you and accept that I let you get away with all your hoodlum behavior passing it as a cute trick you picked up but you shall learn in days to come, that my sensibilities will press me to take a less softer stand on your antics and you will gradually have to learn to be a little less reckless and more disciplined.

However, as that happens I don’t want you to forget that I love you just as much and that you shall always be my little angel. Let this letter be a reminder to you for all those times when you would want to tell me to mind my own business and would hate me for pushing the limits on you. Till then, let me continue smiling at the way you have been holding onto the sheets and slinging down the bed often landing down on the carpet with a ‘thud’.

Love,

Dad.

38 Stories Re-Visited

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 04:40:00 +0000

“The best thing about future is that it comes one day at a time”

- Abraham Lincoln

Dear Riddhie,

Let me begin by wishing you a very Happy New Year 2012.

It is about 20 minutes to go before the date on the calendar changes in this part of the world and as I key this in, you are already asleep in your bed, tucked in comfortably after a relatively harder day for both you and us as your parents.

This last day of 2011 began with you waking up in the wee hours of the morning with a not so pleasant health condition. Perhaps it was something that you picked up and stuffed in your mouth yesterday that possibly gave you a minor stomach infection or perhaps a plain seasonal thing but you had both your mom and me awake since 2 am this morning worrying and fretting about you until earlier in the day. We spent this entire day indoors spending time with you and seeing that you get back in shape hale and hearty to welcome the year ahead. I hope that the day tomorrow dawns upon us with your bright sunshine smile and continues in the same light.

As I look back upon the year that passed us by, I reflect upon the 38 different stories (not counting this one) I could key in during this year 2011. I did write an account of how I saw the year gone by from my perspective in a separate post on my blog (Read Here, if you feel like) but this one is just about summing it up for you.

If January was about me reveling in my re-discovering simple joys in life and basking in the glory of perpetual wonder that you are to me, it was also the month of you experiencing the first tremor of your life and while I could not account for much except for my love for bikes and you in the month of February, I kind of did well during the next few weeks when I wrote one of my finest letters to you. Over the course of next few days I wrote in an account of how you developed a tender fondness for your fingers and your first experience at the big fat Indian wedding as well as your first Holi. During this time I guess we, as your parents saw you with same wonder as you saw the world with your big brown eyes.

The next two months saw me make use of my spare time overseas to make short accounts of your special moments (when India won the World Cup) and your newly acquired likes and habits (Ek Onkaar, Table Licking, Getting Hands On). By June I was pining for you and waiting to be back from my overseas trip however, I had a heartbreak of sorts once I returned and saw you after a gap of five weeks. You had totally forgotten me and no matter how much I tried winning you back with your bouncing babbles, you just would not stop crying.

The month of July saw me make frantic efforts to get your passports and visas done and almost everything that I wrote during that month could be posted only by August which saw me record as many as nine stories from that period. We began with a nice evening dip in a water park and then there were accounts of your embassy adventure and your first trip overseas followed by your experiences here in the US.

As time moved along, we celebrated your first birthday in our own little way here. I got you your first birthday present and I guess this would be one thing that you would see as long as I live :) We also recorded you taking your first steps and saw you pick new habits and traits over time. There were changes in your sleeping pattern and then as you gained better control of your motor functions, the world became your playground and we began seeing an altogether different version of you. This new Riddhie as I know right now is a restless child unwilling to sit at one place and forever up to a mischief.

Well, needless to say but, I am loving every moment of fatherhood thus far and all your antics and tricks that you have picked up till date. I can safely say that 2011 overall had been a good year and I just hope that the coming year treats us just as good, if not better.

So, here’s wishing you a very Happy New Year 2012 again. Hope that we keep making strides forward together and you continue filling colors in my rainbows.

Love,

Dad.

PS: Collage below was done by your Mom :)

Mission Impossible: The Baby Protocol

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 02:00:00 +0000

Two days, two movie buffs, one multiplex and one restless baby – Mission Accomplished: The new baby protocol established…

Dear Riddhie,

I am sure over a period of time you would have realized that I am a little more than an average cinema patron and movies do make up for a very large part of my entertainment. I guess I inherited this love for motion pictures from your grandfather and maybe some of it would rub on to you as well. I can’t tell for sure as of now, but let’s see if this is the case to be. For now, let me tell you about your initial few movies with the focus mainly on the experience yesterday and today.

Let me begin with some history here. Your mom and I had gone to watch Salman Khan starrer ‘Dabangg’ when she was carrying you (a little over 8 months then) and the next movie that we could watch in a theater after Dabangg was ‘Delhi Belly’ and that was when you were already over 7 months old. In fact we followed it back to back with Mr. Bachchan’s ‘Buddha hoga tera baap’, the same day. I wouldn’t say that this was the right cinema for you to open your movie watching innings but nonetheless that’s how you were initiated.

The next few months were mostly spent travelling, adjusting to life in US and watching you grow from a gentle infant to a tornado toddler and it wasn’t until Christmas 2011 that we could plan another movie together. We zeroed on ‘Mission Impossible IV – The Ghost Protocol’ and made to the theater with you in our lap.

I guess the occasion was right and I perhaps could not have timed or planned it better. Since it was Christmas, most of the seats in the theater were empty which meant that you could have an entire row to yourself to walk, crawl and play around if you wanted to.

I must admit that you were intrigued by the large screen and the sound system and (to my surprise actually) sat on your mother’s lap looking intently at what was going on for first half hour. However, as the time progressed you wanted to get down and move about a bit and since we were the only ones sitting in an entire block of seats, we let you down. I got up and sat next to you on the flight of stairs in a corner and we perhaps spent the next 30 – 40 minutes like that.

We could keep you busy with your little snacks and milk at random but I guess it was almost time when your patience ran out. Just about the moment when desert storm kicked in on Tom Cruise (watch the movie and you will know) you got absolutely restless and threw off your cookies and milk bottle as far as you could and began crying. The slow sniffle transformed into loud screams and eventually a Dolby level bawl. Within seconds, you made it clear to us that it isn’t the ghost protocol but the baby’s code of conduct which matters.

Thus, began our own little mission impossible. We rocked you, I let you throw my mobile a few times, your mom kept bribing you with some candy and nuts and I took you for a little walk along the stairs as well. But all this could just about last until the final action sequence and eventually your mom did make the sacrifice and picked you up and walked out of the theater to help you settle in. I joined her a few minutes later and as I key this in, I still do not know how the film ended. (Maybe I shall watch it with you again some time) Maybe we were asking too much from you. You are still about 14 months and 3 weeks old and this is perhaps as reasonable a 14 month old can be.

However, we did not let the matter rest here. Having seen a fair success with you on MI IV (well we could together almost watch 80 – 90 % of the total length of the movie) we decided to push our luck again. The movie this time was the 3D version of Farhan Akhtar’s Don II. As I thought, there were limited people in the audience and the theater again was largely empty and we could find ourselves an entire row empty again. But then as it turned out, you probably liked Tom Cruise better than our Shah Rukh Khan and you were at your restless best within first 15 minutes itself. You wanted to snatch the 3D glasses and wanted to move about just everywhere.

This time around, however your mom decided to battle it out. I guess her confidence was augmented by the fact that it was all Indian population inside the theater and she kind of presumed that the Indian ‘Chalta Hai’ attitude was globally applicable. She took you to the farthest secluded corner and let you move about, as you pleased. You did not let her keep her glasses on for more than a minute at any given time and I am guessing she kind of watched the fuzzed 2D version of a 3D rendition. By the time it was intermission, your mom was nearing her breakpoint. I stepped in when you became almost too violent for her to handle.

I guess I could grab your attention and settle you down for a little while but it wasn’t long before you wanted to be free again. Your mom tried bribing you with some fruit loops but then I guess little children can be greedy pigs once in a while. You stuffed a handful in your mouth and before we realized you were choking on a piece right in the theater. Your mom thumped you on the back and you were settled after puking all over me. While this entire thing lasted only a few seconds, I could smell the stink on my jacket even hours later. Funnily enough, you were all calm and ready to sleep just as about the movie was ending.

I am sure in years to come there would be instances when you would drag us to a movie that you would want to watch and then there perhaps would be a time when you would want to go and catch a movie and not want me or your mom to tag along. I generally would not want to dissuade you from cinema for everyone needs their share of imagination and a break from reality. I would however, want you to self-regulate what you watch for it does affect the way you think and dream.

So, maybe from the time that the moving silver screen starts making sense to you till the time that you are grown up enough to know what you should be watching, I promise to be your man to pick those movies for you. Hope we enjoy them together and carry on our little film club.

Love,

Dad.

The World Is My Playground

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 02:00:00 +0000

“A child and screams in the house is not what you should worry about, the scary thing is when you have both silence and the child under one roof for the next thing you are most likely to hear is a loud crash”

Dear Riddhie,

In my last two posts, I have already talked about how in recent times you have been one restless child wanting to touch and hold everything that you can find within your reach. I shall not dwell upon how it keeps us on the our toes and the edge of our seats forever and would let these pictures do the talking.

The moment we turn our backs, you devise a new prank. Ranging from scaling high chairs, table tops to pulling out electric plugs from their sockets and throwing away our phones.

The worst part of this all is that every time that we try and raise our voice, either to distract you or send over a warning signal, you tend to throw back a full blown smile in return and we get stumped on what course of action to take next.

I know with time, this phase too shall go away and soon you will be intelligent enough not to drink from the bath tub or eat from the carpet and would learn that apples do not bounce off the floor like your big red rubber ball does and that spoons and coffee tables have other purposes in life than make music.

Though, I do enjoy these moments and keep looking for my chance to click you in action, my greater concern is ensuring that you do not sustain any injury when performing your ‘stunts’. I just hope that in years to come while you continue enjoying this world as your playground, you also see it as your oyster and seek your pearls suitably and wisely.

Love,

Dad.

The Little One Who Wouldn’t Sit

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 01:00:00 +0000

“Yeah, let’s be naughty and save Santa the trip”

- Gary Allan

Dear Riddhie,

The title on this post is self-explanatory and I am sure you would have figured out what this is going to be. However, this is more than a story of how you drove us to our wit’s end in a span of few minutes. It is the harrowing tale of an experience that we are unlikely to forget for a long long time and something that shall make us think ten times over before planning any excursion together for the rest of our stay in US on this trip.

It was one of those rare New Jersey mornings in December when we woke up to a sunny and beautiful morning with bright sunshine predicted for almost the entire day. I looked up for a preferable outdoor destination for the day and we zeroed on a place called grounds for sculpture at Hamilton. From the information that I came across about the place from its website, it looked like a very delightful place for the day and we hoped to get a few special shots of you (our favorite pastime) at the venue.

The place was about 45 miles from our dwellings and we started well in time. Your mom made the usual preparations and packed your diaper bag and supplies for the day. It was early in December but the wind chill factor could get the temperature down by further 5 degrees in the evening, so she made sure that you were properly covered and warm. We set out in time and 15 minutes into the drive, you fell asleep and did not wake up until we reached the venue and were all fresh. The place was essentially a huge landscaped outdoor lawn with sculptures and artworks strewn all over the place with a couple of covered galleries. The lawns were neatly maintained and there were pathways leading to the various statues and art pieces. All in all, it seemed a day conducive for some good family fun outdoors.

However, our woes started as soon as you were taken out of your car seat and your feet touched the ground. You winced and grimaced at the sight of your stroller being pulled out of the trunk and broke free from your mother’s hand and rushed to the other side away from the stroller. We were worried about your still unsteady feet carrying you all over the place on slippery grass lawns that had slopes and curves all along and equally concerned of you falling and hurting yourself on the hard cobbled pathway.

I guess you were partially excited and partially overwhelmed at the sight of such open space before you and just wanted to break free and run all over the place. While we thought we would spend the day strolling along gently covering as much as we could and taking pictures at every nook and corner and doing the tourist thing, you on the other hand, had other plans and clearly, the idea of a leisure walk did not go down too well with you.

First, you did not wish to sit in the stroller at all and squirmed and straightened your legs and cried and threw a tantrum until we finally gave in to your wish. Your mother walked along slowly holding your hand while I kept pushing the empty pram, stopping now and then to click a picture or two. And then the inevitable happened. You slipped your hand out of your mother’s clasp and rushed on full steam on the stone tiled walkway, tripped over a jutting corner of a tile and fell flat on your face. I was walking a few steps ahead and turned around at your mother’s scream as you fell. By the time we picked you up, you were crying at the top of your voice.

You had sustained a minor bruise around your temple and thankfully it was nothing serious. Had you been any older and perhaps any more intelligent to understand speech, I would have boxed your ears and told you it serves you right and this is what happens when you do not listen to your folks. However, we were so caught up in the moment that for a seconds we did not know how to pacify you. You kept crying uncontrollably while your mom tried everything she could - ranging from giving you water, handing a cookie and the milk bottle, shaking you up, hugging you, washing your face and wiping your nose.

It was only after a few minutes of coaxing and comforting that you finally settled in. I now wanted you back in your stroller to avoid any more falls but I guess you were still in no mood to concede. The moment I picked you up to get you in your seat, you threw your arms about, kicked me as hard you could and even got my glasses off my face and threw them to the ground. You were the epitome of being a spoilt brat and we were a perfect example of how miserable the parents of an unrelenting infant can be. By the time I managed to buckle you up a small crowd had gathered around us. Other visitors were throwing us glances and snickering and talking in hushed whispers. A few of the good Samaritans had the nerve to walk up to us and even exclaim, “Is she alright?” Our parenting skills were totally blown apart and publically disgraced for sure.

Your mother tried to sit aside on a bench to coax you – you straightened your legs and screamed even harder. She tried bribing you with a cookie – you flung it back at her face. She tried getting you to sip some water – you filled your mouth and then let it out all over your clothes. She pulled out one of your toys – you threw it as far as you could on the ground.

After much persuasion when we finally could get you to an agreeable state, you decided to take it back upon us. As long as we kept moving, you chose to remain silent but the moment we stopped to admire an artifact or to click a picture, you would start with your hollering.

Eventually we had to have you back on your feet and walking all over but now you did not even wish to hold our hands and wanted to be on your own. There were couple of peacocks roaming around free in the lawns and I tried to distract you and walked you over to them. But I guess by that time you were through with the place. You showed minimal interest in the peacocks and went about hating us for not giving you your freedom and kept crying.

The place was being decorated for the upcoming holiday season and we were hoping to stay until the lights came on. The trees and sculptures were covered in various lights and perhaps you would have liked it too but then we never stood a chance with you then. Eventually we drove back just as about the lights were coming up. Surprisingly, the moment you were back in your car seat and we were on our way back, you settled down nice and easy and were back to your normal self. For the records, you slept easy within five minutes and we sat in silence all our way back contemplating what just happened.

I guess it makes for a funny read now and maybe we shall tease you about being such a brat in years to come but trust me, it was one of the days that reminded us of the day you attended your first important wedding in the family (Read Here).

Perhaps there would be days that shall make us look back on this day with gratitude and this definitely would be a good story to tell you when you would be screaming at your kids some day. Who knows? Maybe until then I shall look back and take lesson from the day to reflect that you are your own person with your own free mind. I guess as parents, we shall try and be cognizant of this fact and will let you make your own decisions and take your own path. But at the same time we would also like you to see our reasons, for ensuring your seat belt and safety nets are secure in the same light. Though at times it would be unavoidable but as your parents we wouldn’t want you falling down and getting hurt – be it walking down your education or career path or just running around in the lawns as the case is now. Hope you would grow up to be mature enough to know the difference.

Love,

Dad.

The Midnight Surprise

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:51:00 +0000

“There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep…”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dear Riddhie,

Over these last couple of weeks, you seem to have entered a new phase. You have become extremely inquisitive about things and articles around you and have become more of an explorer unwilling to settle down and sit quietly at one place.

Right from the minute when you wake up in the morning, you are on this little crusade within the house opening drawers and cupboards and fidgeting with anything and everything on the tables that you can get hold of. The moment we turn our eyes away, you bring down a cushion, throw away a bottle, pull down the blinds and grab the phones. You are no longer content playing with your toys and want a piece of everything within your reach. Even the trash cans and dishwasher are not spared and in recent times I have seen your mom rush to clean up after you so many times that she doesn’t seem like doing anything else all day long.

Needless to say that all this running around exhausts you too and you like being tucked in and put to bed early these days. It also works well with us as we can have our dinner sitting at the table without having to worry about you coming up and toppling things over and feeding the carpet. We have been trying to get you into a routine where you do your running about all day long and sleep by 7 in the evening on a daily basis.

Someday few nights ago, you got yourself so tired during the day that by the time I was home after work, you were already in deep slumber. Your mom informed me that it was about as early as 5:00 pm when you decided to throw in the towel and call it a day. By the time we settled in after our dinner and daily chores for the day it was almost 11 in the night.

About two hours later, I woke up to the sound of light banging on the door. I instinctively moved my hand over the bed to check on you and my heart skipped a beat. You were not on the bed. I sprang up and switched on the light and to my utter surprise found you standing by the door, all playful and smiling and wanting to be let out.

Not only had you crawled to the corner of the bed without a sound, you slid off the bed as well and found your way to the door in the dark and were tugging at the door knob to open the door. I called out to you and your eyes lit up with mischief. You wanted to run out and perhaps would have liked me chasing after you as well.

I opened the bedroom door and let you out in the living area and sat there with you for some time. You continued tinkering around a few things that you could lay your hands on and to my relief soon got bored of it. Seizing a window of opportunity there, I quickly got ready one of your milk bottles and picked you up and tucked you back in. Your mom woke up in due course and wondered at what devilry the father – daughter duo was up to in the middle of the night and couldn’t help smiling when I told her about your latest feat.

Maybe in a few years from now, you shall want to sneak out of your bed to another mischief and maybe you would actually not want me to be a part of it then. I don’t know if I will be able to catch and ground you then or if you will outsmart your old man. But I guess till that happens, I shall enjoy these little midnight surprises with you. Maybe one of these days when you are a little older we would want to sneak out together and make way to the refrigerator to steal some ice cream in the middle of the night or to just hang about in the living room blasting each other on a gaming console…..hmmm looking forward to it I guess.

Love,

Dad.

More Little Things…

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:00:00 +0000

“This one just begins from where I left on the last one… more little things that I am reminded of…”

Dear Riddhie,

Just continuing on the last post where I listed a few of the little random things that you picked up (and lost) over time. I must admit that couple of these things have been way too cute for me to reminisce about for perhaps, the rest of my life.

Continuing from the previous list, here are a few more of those little things...

1. Baby goes “Thhaaaaa” – I have a vague recollection of how it started actually. We were still at our parental house and you were sitting over a mat on the verandah and we were around watching you play with an empty steel bowl (katori) and a spoon. You were in early days of testing your grip and were happily beating the spoon on the bowl when it just fell out from your grasp and hit the floor with a significant louder metallic clang which startled you a bit. Your grandmother was sitting besides you on a chair and she tried to reassure you and exclaimed ‘What happened Riddhie? Thaaa ho gayi?’ and you just picked up the sound Thaa… Minutes later, you were throwing the bowl away on the floor deliberately and exclaiming ‘Thaa’ every time it hit the tiles. It soon got converted to a standard warning phrase of communication with you. Every time someone in the family wanted to warn you about falling over they would say ‘Riddhie Thaaa’ and you would immediately stop in your track, no matter what you were doing. As the case is with the babies when they learn to roll over, a common phenomenon is them falling off the bed as well. No matter how much caution we examined, you did have your share of falls. The first time it happened you just rolled off on the carpet from a low bedside and though it did not hurt, you got up looking all bewildered and the moment I picked you up, you said ‘Thaa’. I could not help smiling at that look you gave and at your assessment of the situation. ‘Thaa’ thereafter has been our warning signal to you when you get too close to the edge of the bed or are playful around the furniture in the house. It has been proving its worth till date as I key this in.

2. Give, Riddhie Give: This happens to be one of the most useful things we could teach you as you were growing up. You are just about an year and two weeks old as I write this and we have been able to teach you the concept of picking up a thing and giving it to us. Of course, it still comes more like a game to you, nonetheless it’s both fun and help for us since it prevents you from taking things and articles you can find within your reach and putting them in your mouth. It started with us calling out to you, reaching out our hands and making gestures with our palms and fingers for you to come and hand out whatever you had picked up to us, chanting ‘give, give, give…’ all the while. This had to be followed with a big smile and a loud ‘Thank You’ to help you understand that your effort is appreciated. Soon you started enjoying this little exercise and looked forward to that big Thank-You. In fact, it has come to a point where you just find anything that you can reach out to and bring it to either your mom or me and wait for us to say thanks to you. The list of articles is growing as you have extended your reach to telephone in the living room, slippers lying around, TV remotes, mobile phones, any books you find on the coffee table and of course your toys around you.

I guess most of these things shall go away as you grow up. Along the line, you would become wise in worldly ways, lose some of your innocence and shall add more shades to your personality. I would wish and expect that you learn more and study well and develop a balanced and healthy emotional and intelligence quotient but then I believe I can not even close eyes to the fact that you shall also pick up a few grey traits along. I can already see you act stubborn at times and show anger when your will is not done. Sigh..I guess no matter what future brings us, we, as your parents shall always look back at these little stories of your early childhood with the same warmth and cherish them as ever. So, for now enjoying this golden period of our lives with you, hoping that you pick up new tricks on a daily basis and I continue keying them in.

Love,

Dad.

Little Things You Do…

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

“Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that life is made up of little things”

- Frank Howard Clark

Dear Riddhie,

There have been a host of little things that you have picked up in recent times and before they are lost to the dust of time and to the amnesia of life, let me just put them up together for you and compile them in this letter. These are little things which do not necessarily warrant a separate post and a couple of them are events which I just want to briefly touch upon so as to remember them and give you the details in person when you come back and ask me and those which I do not wish to deliberately elaborate upon here to avoid causing you any embarrassment since I am publishing these letters to a public domain.

Let me begin by talking about the most recent ones.

1. Using the Straw – This perhaps has been your early feat. I was looking up and reading various articles on infant growth and development patters and came across references where it said that children learn to use a straw as a tool for drinking from a cup when they are between 14 to 18 months of age. October 23, 2011 happened to be the first day when you successfully learnt to use a straw for drinking water from a cup. Maybe I would come across as an obsessed parent to most readers as it really is something that all kids eventually learn, but nonetheless, since it happened before me, I guess there is no harm in noting it down here.

2. The Sound of Static - At your age, you do not totally understand things and there are not many things that invoke a sense of fear. However, the topmost item on the list of things that make you scream and howl and really cry out loud is the static noise as coming from a vacuum cleaner, hair dryer or the rumbling of a dish washer. The other items which you feared a few weeks ago and are now able to deal with are whistle from a pressure cooker and the sound through the air vent of a microwave oven. I guess this list shall grow and shrink to include and strike off various items as grow up. Perhaps your list shall some day coincide with mine and I shall fear things that I haven’t been afraid of so far in my life. Hopefully we shall stand by each other on all those days.

3. Go – Go – Go: I don’t know how this one got missed out earlier but ‘GO’ was perhaps the first thing you learnt to say after ‘mmmaaa’. In fact you would say a GO for almost everything that you wanted to respond to. Later when you realized that Go was something you could use to tell others to pick you up and take you out for a walk, it became ‘Go, Go, Go’ the repetition underlining the emphasis that you wanted to assert. A few days down the line you had almost christened your grandpa as ‘Go’ and as soon as he entered home after work, you would start chiming ‘go, go, go’ as an indication for him to take you out and show you the lights on the road and the moving traffic. As it had to be you lost out on this when you picked up more syllables on your vocab.

4. The Rock star move: Another of those early moves that you learnt to make was to bang your head in a rock star motion. Be it to the sound of music or perhaps just something playing inside your head you would rock your head back and forth in a rhythmic trance as if dancing to some rock beat. With your little hair blossoming into fine curls, this sure looked one move to die for. I simply loved it when you started doing it and never really stopped you or tried to check you on this. Well, as I just mentioned, it looked brilliant till it lasted. Maybe it had again to do something with your teething and you got out it once you had your incisors out and biting.

5. Baby and the Ball: Now, this one really came off as a surprise to us. When, after our arrival here in US, I set out to buy toys for you, one thing which I thought would be an obvious pick was a ball. I set out to buy a few – different sizes and light weight kinds, one you could just see floating around and the one which would bounce up a bit. To my surprise, once we were home and threw them across to you, you saw them as some alien species and started crying out big time. In fact it became so bad that we had to eventually hide them up for a few days. It was only after a lot of coaxing that you finally got ‘friendly’ with them and started playing around. However, as I key this in, you still haven’t learnt how to kick them or throw them around. All you do is pick them up with both hands and bring them over to us and wait for us to thank you in a loud jovial tone and throw it back again so you could go and bring it back to us. For now, I am calling it as the little pup game (your mom hates the name though) and waiting for you to start throwing it back and play ‘catch’ with me.

I guess now that I have started putting in all the little stories together I am reminded of a couple more. Maybe I would break this letter here and should do another adding up a few more of these little random things you did or still do at the time of keying this in or maybe I should just keep making little snippet posts. I guess I shall figure it out all the same, I hope reading about these shall give you as much pleasure as it gives me while noting them in here.

Love,

Dad.

The Sleeping Tornado

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:00:00 +0000

“FYI - A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud”

Dear Riddhie,

When I started writing this, it was intended to be a funny narration to cause a few smiles, but then last night I also saw a ‘not so funny’ side of it. There has been a marked change in your sleeping pattern recently and we, as your parents find ourselves caught in a situation which is both funny and literally back breaking at times.

The last few weeks saw you take your first steps and it was just a matter of days that you started running around and bumping into things. I believe that this development has also led to a change in the way you have been sleeping in recent times. We normally have you sleeping with us on the bed tucked comfortably between your mum and me. The nightly routine for us to get you to sleep begins with a bottle of milk and couple of lullabies and let me add here, that the success rate of this pattern is only 50% actually. When it doesn’t work we try getting you to lie down over either of us and try rocking you to sleep. I haven’t seen this work in last couple of days now and the last option that we currently have is to let you be for a while. We allow you to keep running and jumping all over us, bang your head on the head rest a couple of times (it is soft leather and well cushioned), kick us on our faces, stomachs, backs and everywhere else often invoking sharp pangs of pain and screams from us in the middle of the night before you tire yourself out and we try another milk bottle and a few more lullabies. Now, if this was not exercise enough for us already, let me tell you about the two new things that you added to this list recently.

1. Kick the Sheets – As soon as we put you to bed and try tucking you in, the first thing you do is to kick the sheets over you to get your legs out. This often leads to getting the sheets and blankets from off us as well and a larger part of my night these days is spent in getting the sheets over you lest you are not snug enough. But somehow, everything I do right now is just not enough. Ten seconds on the bed and into the sheets and you kick them off like a footballer now and this does not stop even when you are in deep slumber.

2. The Tornado Move - The next thing follows as soon as you hit deep sleep. In precise calculated moves, you just tend to lift your torso and in quick motion turn yourself counterclockwise to turn yourself 180 degrees in the same space. Often this translates to me getting kicked in the nose again or being pushed to the brink of falling off the bed. Depending upon how many hours do you sleep without waking up in between is directly proportional to number of whirls and rotations you would make. I have woken up in the middle of the night to find your toes up my nostrils or your head right on my knee. Surprisingly all these movements are directed in my direction alone and not your mom who often doesn’t even get to know how many times I set you back in your original position.

Ah well, I guess its just a matter of time before you gain realization of your being and your likes and dislikes and become more aware of your surroundings. I would really like to shoot a video or take some pictures to keep an evidence of your tornado moves since I am sure you shall soon grow out of it. But if nothing else, this post shall keep this memory saved for the coming years.

As I key this in, you are moving around and on to some mischief. It’s about 08:30 in the night and I guess, time for me or your mom to pick you up again and initiate the daily ritual. Yup, milk bottle coming up for you my angel, so perhaps I should just sign out on this one now. Nighty-night angel.

Love,

Dad.

PS: The picture above was taken yesterday morning (October 26, 2011). During the night, you managed a 270 degrees turn and when we woke up you were lying perpendicular to the length of the bed. Note, no sheets again. :)

The First Steps

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 03:00:00 +0000

“The first step is when you start leaving a trail…at times to make a path for others to follow”

Dear Riddhie,

From a time line perspective, the events as narrated in this letter happened about a couple of weeks prior to my keying this in. Considering that this was such an important event in the course of your development, I decided to still post it even if it was a little late.

Well, you started balancing yourself on your feet around last week of July and had started beginning to get up and stand on your own for few seconds or so at around that time but it was not until the second week of August 2011 that you started taking a couple of steps on your own.

Your mom would encourage you to stand up and take a step or two towards her, often luring you with one of your favorite oat cookies at that point of time. We never really saw you crawling on your knees much and so kind of knew that it would not be too long before you would decipher how to use your legs and surge ahead.

It was the afternoon of August 19 when your mom saw you standing on your own holding one of the coffee tables in the living room and called you up. She came near and you turned around and decided to reach out for her open arms. It was probably at that very moment that you took your very first step. I remember her calling me at work to give me the news.

It was the same evening when she got you standing on the slab of our kitchen as I looked on and she coaxed you to walk towards her. I sat by waiting for you to respond to that call and though I wasn’t really sure of the entire exercise being done on the kitchen slab, you did, though nervously, move a step or two towards her. I guess it was a matter of chance that I was waiting with a camera and I could capture the moment that was.

The coming weeks saw you learn and control your motor functions better and we were soon running after you trying to catch up and prevent you from banging into glass doors and walls and every this else. These days you just love taking off and rush towards a toy or something you fancy and often fall on your bum with a good ‘thud’. The carpet on the floor and your cushioned diapers have so far proved their worth on all such occasions.

I guess in the overall scheme of life, this may eventually feel like a very normal function and such an integral part of life that you may not even realize anything special about it until perhaps you see your own children take their first step some day. Perhaps one of these days when I am old and frail and my knees finally lose their juice, I would wait for you to rush home from your world once in a while to fill me up with the stories of faraway lands and newer skies. Till then, I guess I shall look back and watch this video we shot the other night when you took your first few steps.

Love,

Dad.

The Party & The Gift

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 03:00:00 +0000

“More from Riddhie’s first birthday…”

Dear Riddhie,

The last few days have been pretty hectic again on the work front and I really could not write as much as I thought I would. There still are one or two things more that I wanted to share with you about your first birthday. It’s true that you did not have a grand party or perhaps a celebration that we would have planned for if we were back home in India, but then I guess it kind of turned out just as happy and fun.

We planned a day trip to a theme park called Sesame Place situated in Pennsylvania on the weekend before your birthday. This park is based on a TV show called Sesame Street which is essentially a puppet show with characters like Elmo, Count von Count and others. Though you were probably a little too young to understand the stories as narrated by the puppets in their theater shows, the sheer splendor of colors around and the movements of the characters in their large puppet costumes thrilled you no end. We went through a couple of rides which you could sit in with your mom holding you and it was probably your first experience of the delight and thrill of a joy ride.

We ended up doing all possible things that we thought you would enjoy including clicking as many pictures as we could. You had a real good time while it lasted and you kept jumping all along. I remember in one of the theater shows that we sat with you, you got so excited on seeing the large furry puppets dancing on the stage that you jumped up in glee and almost knocked out the cap off a lady sitting in row ahead of us.

It was almost evening by the time we finished there and it also began to drizzle a bit and so we decided to head home. On our way back, we stopped at one of the stores and your mom bought you a nice dress for your birthday. The following few days saw your mom and you click a dozen pictures in the lawns below the apartment and when we finally posted those pictures online, almost everyone who saw them had a special word to say about how pretty you looked.

As far as I was concerned, I decided to do something special for you. A day before your birthday, I designed a special ambigram of your name and had it tattooed on me – right between my shoulders. I am not sure if you would like it when you grow up and see it but I guess for me this was one way of telling you that I shall always carry you as long as I live and also that you, my princess are way too precious to me and will always be.

I shall conclude this post and the story of your first birthday here. There are so many other pictures of the day that I am sure we shall have lots to talk about as you grow older, for now I shall sign off with the two taken by your mom and which I feel have been one of the most beautiful ones till date.

Love,

Dad.

As You Turn One…

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:45:00 +0000

“Today is a special day as it’s one year since you were born as my daughter and isn’t it strange that it’s the same amount of time I was born as your dad as well.”

Dear Riddhie,

As you turn one today, several things cross my mind. As I key this letter in, I see your mother trying hard to cook up a story to distract you to get you to comb and pin your hair and I am reminded of the day when I held you for the very first time. I guess something changed for me then and there as I stood fixed to the ground looking at you and you wouldn’t just stop crying.

I am also reminded of all those early days when we as your parents were still learning how to hold you and carry you and all those nights when despite all our efforts you would just not agree to sleep through. There were times when I would just rock you for hours or we would take you for a long drive in the middle of the night trying to settle you down.

Then came moments when you started gaining consciousness of things around you. It was both interesting and fun to watch you enjoy and respond to colors, tastes, sounds, lights and people around. This learning process is still on and I guess every passing day it is a new lesson in life for both you and us as your parents.

It hasn’t been too long since you took your first step and we already are finding it difficult to catch up with you. I can imagine there would be a day when you would be ready to step out into the world to find and make your place in it and we would lose the luxury of being able to stay around all the time and watch you take strides ahead.

This very day, I am sure, had we been back home in India with the rest of the family, there would have been a big bash with everyone invited and you would have been showered with presents and wishes alike. I am not sure if you would have actually enjoyed any of that given that you still are a toddler and do not appreciate very many things except your play time, a few toys and a timely meal and nap. I guess your Mom did all she could to still make this day as special as she could. She dressed you up (a couple of times in fact) and clicked tons of pictures and let you create as much ruckus in the house as you liked. Back home, your Dadi too hosted a little puja in the temple she visits daily and I am told that there was some cake cutting at home as well.

Here, the day ended when you after being tired of all the activity just flopped on the bed and rolled off in deep slumber.

I am sure in the years to come, we shall continue celebrating this day in different ways some times lavishly and maybe on others at a modest level. However, I am sure we as your parents shall cherish this day every year just the same. I would always wish you to have the best that life has to offer and would pray that you gain enough wisdom and virtue to be able to always make a sensible and sane choice for you and for those who matter to you. I don’t know what time has in store for us but on this day as you start taking your first steps, I hope and pray that you keep smiling just as ever and fill warmth and sunshine into the lives of everyone around you.

Love,

Dad.

The Tamarind Episode

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 22:00:00 +0000

“Perhaps the easiest way to feed a baby is to spread the food on the floor…”

Dear Riddhie,

It’s not been very long since you developed a sense of taste and your set of likes and dislikes and have started being picky about your food. Though you have still not started voicing it out explicitly, the realization tends to dawn upon us when we see you lick your spoon twice over in case you like something or just spit it out in a little shower back at us when you don’t.

I was asking your mother earlier this week as why she was opening another jar of your baby food when there were still unfinished jars lying in the fridge and she replied that you don’t really like the ones we had previously opened and so she was trying a new flavor or one with different ingredients in it. Of all things that I do not like, I guess the one which really stands out is the habit of wasting food. While I was ready to argue that she probably did not try hard enough, I thought of taking a pause (to my better judgment over the years now) and take a jab at the task myself. I was not willing to believe that you would actually have a preference as early as yet. But then was I to be proved wrong??

So, I picked up this little bottle of Gerber’s Plum and Apple flavored paste – the one I was told that you relished a few weeks ago and now did not feel like taking even a tiny morsel of. I held you close and switched on some music – you know just to set in the mood and started telling you this little story, hovering the spoon around to get your attention and slowly brought it closer to your lips. You looked up at me with suspicion then slowly got your tongue out and tasted the little bit that was on offer and well, to my delight smiled and lapped it all up.

I was delighted. I took a bigger spoonful and brought it up even faster and well, you had that too in one big gulp. I looked around and found your mom standing there looking at me with a slightly bewildered look. I raised my spoon like a little trophy and told her “See, you were wrong. You just need the right technique to feed the child.” But then before I dug in another spoon and could get you to eat any more, she leapt up and held my hand and grabbed the bottle straight off the table.

“You see this is why they shouldn’t allow men to handle little children” she said. “The bottle you are feeding Riddhie from doesn’t even have baby food. I threw away what was in there and used the little bottle to fill in the tamarind paste I made this morning” she continued.

I didn’t know whether to laugh at the entire episode or be angry at myself for not checking or even smelling the contents of the bottle but then I guess I was not guilty of this alone since the bottle was unmarked and still lying next to your other baby food jars in the same row in the fridge. All the same I was surprised at the way you lapped up the sour paste quickly enough and then even wanted more. Luckily for us, that did not upset your stomach or gave you a sore throat or anything.

This entire episode just reasserted the fact that we can never be too careful when it comes to you. In recent times you have acquired the habit of picking up things from the floor and putting them in your mouth. You are still at a stage when you don’t understand what a ‘No’ means and we end up running after you and forcing you to spit things out but I guess I shall talk about one of those episodes some other time. For now, I can see you play in your crib and look up at me from there from time to time and your mom and I are smiling about the tamarind story all over again.

Love,

Dad.

Sun, Sea and Sand…

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:00:00 +0000

“The cure for everything in life is salt water – Sweat, Tears or Sea…”

- Anonymous

Dear Riddhie,

Isn’t it strange that people talk about finding calm and peace in the sound of the waves crashing on the shore? The sound itself doesn’t echo a musical note, yet helps sort out the most troubled souls. Perhaps its the feeling that you get when you are standing before a huge body of water or staring down a cliff – the feeling of your existence being such a trivial thing in the entire scheme of universe. Personally, I guess I like the sea better than a mountain side. I totally enjoy the first sight of sea and the first whiff of air that fills your lungs when you are entering a beach or just passing by the shore.

My first memories of a beach are of Juhu beach in Bombay (OK Mumbai). Though, if you were to compile a list of top 50 beaches around the globe based on their beauty or cleanliness, it may not find a place in the list but it still somehow is special to me. I was really young then and the first sighting of sea wasn’t just joyful it was almost magical. I remember the few visits we made to the beach on that trip, your grandma would buy me and your Bunty uncle a green coconut and we would have fun looking around for shells or just running along the sand, getting ourselves soaked in the spray. Interesting to note here is the fact that apart from the food stalls and the hawkers and a special characteristic ‘stink’, the beach doesn’t offer you much. There are no boardwalks, no roller coasters and more notably no civic sense in most people to help keep the area clean yet the entire experience remained fresh in my memory for years. In the last few years, I made couple more trips to Bombay and as a rule always visited the beach, even if I was going there for a day.

August 7, 2011 turned out to be your first visit to a beach. Location, Sea side heights along the Jersey shore. Perfect weather, not too hot and a pretty good boardwalk with lots of rides and colors and things to do, which I am sure you would have enjoyed way more had you been a little older. The place, in fact, turned out to be way better than our expectations. There weren’t many people around so the place wasn’t really bursting on its seams and there was ample parking space available (a thing which you would have gathered over the years that I am a little paranoid about).

The beach was about 60 miles away from our place and starting early in the day saved us from being trapped in traffic queues or other similar inconveniences. Once parked in and on the boardwalk, you were ecstatic delighted at the play of colors and people around. Your joy knew no bounds once you came in sight of the ocean. The huge mass of water and the play of waves spraying white foam on water was a sight to behold and you truly seemed mesmerized by this first vision. Your mom tried getting you with her to the water but I guess the magnanimity of such a sight got the better of you and you shrieked in fear every time the waves tried lapping up your feet.

Once it became clear, that you were going to keep a safe distance from the water, I decided to help you with the next best thing to do – play with sand. We sat together away from the water to observe how you dealt with this new element in your environment. I guess this was your first encounter with sand as well and you had a considerably good time playing with it. You apparently wanted to have your mouthful of it and I constantly kept deterring you from it until you got tired of the entire thing altogether and wanted to be picked up and be handed your milk bottle. It was perhaps then that we decided that you have had enough and probably it was time to head back.

Your mom cleaned you up and gave you a change of clothes before we sat down to have some lunch by the beach. Though it was tough carrying your stroller, bags we carried and you all the way from the beach to the parking lot and we were panting hard by the time we settled back in the car, overall it turned out to be one good outing. In fact we were so pleased at your reaction and the way you were mesmerized looking at the water initially that the following weekend saw us do an encore and we checked out a sister beach of Sea Side Heights called the Point Pleasant as well.

I am sure you would have seen the entire picture set that we have from these days already but for your reference let me pull out a few and post them here as well. In fact I shall also add in a small and only video we got in accidently while clicking your pictures with sand at Point Pleasant.

Love,

Dad.

Of Lazy Sundays and Sunshine Mornings

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 10:00:00 +0000

“I’d like mornings better if they started later…”

- Anonymous

Dear Riddhie,

To begin with let me clarify that no matter what the quote above implies, I still am and have always been a morning person. But then it would be incorrect to say that I do not enjoy an occasional laid back lazy morning.

When I was younger, there were times we would sleep on the terrace under the stars on summer nights. It was fun being lulled to sleep watching the moon play hide and seek between the clouds or be able locate an odd shooting star once in a while. There were no desert coolers and no Air Conditioners and life and needs were simpler. I however, used to hate it when the morning light streamed through the shut eye lids and forced us to be on our feet and back downstairs to our respective rooms, often as early as 4:30 or 5:00 in the day. While on days when there was school, it seemed torturous to be up so early and to start preparing for the day ahead but during summer breaks and on Sundays, it often meant to be able to snuggle back into the bed and sleep till the time your grandma wouldn’t make us get up again.

While those days are long gone, I can not help but wonder what lies ahead. Would your generation ever get to know how blissful can the simple joys in life be? I can’t really say at this moment. Maybe by the time you get ready to read this, I shall have a couple more answers. As of now as I type this in, you have crawled under my desk and are looking to eat off the floor and as I bend down to stop you, you have moved ahead and are laughing at this little game of yours. Perhaps, this is as simple as it can ever be for you.

Coming back to my stream of thoughts, I am reminded of an easy laid back Sunday morning couple of weeks ago. We woke up to the sun filtering through the open curtains and enveloping the room in a golden honey glow. The white sheets that you were sleeping on reflected the light back and your sunshine smile made it all the more special. It was one of those days again after ages when despite having woken up early I did not wish to rise from the bed. I guess, few years from now when you shall have your own routine and schedule and when I perhaps would drop down on your list of priorities such moments of leisure and magic would become hard to come by.

Maybe then I would spring up these pictures that I took of you on that beautiful Sunday morning and fill in the same sunshine in my wrinkled winters then. No matter what happens to us then, I shall wish the same happiness that you fill my heart with now, for all times to come.

Love,

Dad.

Fangs…

noreply@blogger.com (HT) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 15:00:00 +0000

“What is scarier – vampires you can see in movies or the kind you are transformed to by your evil within?”

Dear Riddhie,

This one might surprise you a bit as it more or less springs out of no where. There was this picture of you from Point Pleasant beach where your lateral incisors are showing a bit and last night while watching some old vampire movie I thought of doing a picture of you out of fun mainly with a view to test if I still had some photoshop skills left in me.

Your mom was not too appreciative of the endeavor but I guess it overall turned out to be one good piece (well, looking strictly from the art perspective of it). I posted the picture online on FaceBook with the title ‘Taking PhotoShop to the Extreme’ and my friends and people showed mixed reaction to it.

I am sure by now you would know me as much, to adjudge that I don’t give a penny to what people’s reactions are to things and ideas that I believe in. I read this quote long ago when I was in school and it somehow stuck forever. Maybe I did mention it to you in some previous letter as well. It says ‘If you are standing upright, don’t worry if your shadow looks crooked”. Well, I guess I live by this rule, have always done so and if I am not gone as yet, I shall perhaps continue doing so. The take for you here is that you need to back yourself up specially when the wind is in your face.

Anyway, this also sprang up another notion in my head. Few people in the family wanted me to delete the picture, there were others who said that it wasn’t right to do that to your kid’s picture and someone even commented that it is not right for ‘religious’ reasons. (Yeah, well the last comment ensured one thing that I wouldn’t delete it now). However, looking at positive side of things, it also means that people perhaps love you more than they love my PhotoShop skills. :) Another inference drawn is that shocking images still get people to pay attention and that the opinions are still majorly drawn from clichéd and banal value systems (Little babies are meant to look cute and not menacing).

Ah, well, just to conclude this little post and round up my thoughts here. There are few things that came up from this episode and which I believe I should share with you. First, I love you as much even if you tend to be this little monster and throw up a few tantrums at times and Second it is more important to have a conviction and do your own thing despite people telling you what you ‘should be’ doing. I guess over the next couple of years I shall juggle between the person encouraging you to find your own ground and your own sky and being this worried old man wanting you to conform and fall in line on certain things. I guess in the larger scheme of things both these roles are equally important and probably you shall realize this over the course of your life.

For now, I guess I shall just let you be, as you again crawl under the table and hold my knees to get up. Let me also tell you that here in Jersey, this is the night when Irene – the hurricane visits us in a few hours from now, having already wrecked coasts along Virginia but more on that in a separate post.

Here is the picture that started it all and the second one in yellow tinge which I did not post earlier as I thought it wasn’t good enough along with the original picture that was ‘touched up’.

Love,

Dad.