Buzz Tales

My day starts with Buzz getting up.

As I rub my eyes, pick Buzz up from her crib and walk to the living room, she hold on tight, blabbering in her baby language.

My Mom is already in the living room doing her Pranayaams. And the moment Buzz see her Nani she wants to be let down. So off she goes to climb on to Nani’s lap, get her morning dose of hugs and kisses. Once done Buzz makes a bee line to her toys. Mom gets back to her Pranayaam and I plop on the couch and open my laptop.

Soon mom gets the part of Pranayaam where she takes these real quick breaths, so quick inhale, quick exhale, repeat multiple times. Buzz head comes up. She looks at Nani very carefully, scrunches her nose and does the exact same thing, quick inhale, quick exhale, repeat a couple of times. Then she looks at my face and Nani’s face and lifts her hand up and turns her palm out as in an question: ‘What are you waiting for?’.

Mom and I burst out laughing while Buzz claps her hand at the appreciation.

That is a look back at my 2009 and this is a peek into my 2010.

Hope all of you have an extra special 2010. Will see you all next year.

Wordless Wednesday – III

Wishes galore

Kripya dhayaan dein. Eak vishesh suchna.

Blogging (writing, reading other blogs and commenting on them) is going to be a bit slow owing to the holidays, family in town and something else that is taking up all my time..

he he he..but I am having so much fun.

Regular programming will commence once the new year rolls around.

Till then wishing all of you A Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year

Thanks Matt for providing the Christmas Gifts that I want to share with Ramit, Chatterbox, Viswa, G, Psych Babbler, the 15 very special ladies  and all of you out there. And Matt of course gets the biggest and bestest of presents.

Suchna samaapt hue.  Rukaawat ke liye khed hai.

Travel Thursday – Wild Flowers

As the rays of the sun thaws the ground come spring, earth breaks out in a riot of colors. No one waters, digs, prunes, weeds them. They grow as they are, as they like, wild as their name suggests. And I see them everywhere but somehow am always in a rush or without a camera as I pass by.

One day late May as D and I parked our car and made our way up a hike, I could not resist. So out came the camera. As D got impatient, I took my time. The hike could wait, so what if we were 15 mins late getting to the summit. This was important to me. The beauty captured of the wild flowers for all time.

PS: Not really travel related. But this is for you Divz.

Wordless Wednesday – II

Gifts and their giving

One morning around mid November as I walked into my office building, I saw the Christmas tree was up decorated with little pink cards tied up in strings. Everyday more and more cards disappear and more and more boxes, gift bags appear below the tree.

An organization around this area collects a wish list from little children in foster homes, old people in old age homes, women in protection homes. Writes the list down on these pink cards, puts a tree each in all the company buildings and places cards around the trees. People based on the amount they want to spend and what they want to buy, pick the cards off the trees and place the gift with the card below the tree once they are done.

The ‘Tree of Giving’ is all about ones wish to give. There is no one banging on your office door to demand that you give, there is no impact on your annual review if you give or don’t, there is no one you tell if you give and how much you gave. It’s all about the spirit of Christmas, of ensuring that people less fortunate than you get to open at least one gift over Christmas, of playing Santa for one person in need and brighten their Christmas. And as I watch the pile below the tree grow, I am always amazed at the complete trust people have. The gifts are kept in a common area with people from all walks of life walking by. But never have I ever heard anyone being uncomfortable about leaving what they brought out or of any gift gone missing. Everything is accounted for always.

Today I walked in to be greeted by a bare tree. Not one pink slip on the tree and it warms my heart that everyone got their one wish.

Tomorrow all the gifts will be gone to be distributed over the holidays and there will be no better site than an empty tree..till next year when it’s all back.

Nini time..zzz..

Buzz was an amazing sleeper, falling asleep on her own and sleeping for long stretch of time (6 hours in a go at night), when she was only 3 months old. Things took a turn when I made my trip to India and back. Jetlag hit the poor baby bad. That in conjunction to me heading off to work soon after we got back and sleep became a major issue. She decided she did not want to go to sleep and once she was asleep she wanted to be up every two hours at night and check on mom to ensure I was still around. Between sleepless night, work and running behind Buzz once I was back home, I was going insane.

A lot of friends, Buzz’s pediatrician, people on the net talked about Ferberizing her. In common terms the method is called ‘Cry it out’ method, where you let the baby cry, till he/she gets tired and falls asleep on their own. Continue that for a few days and the baby learns that no one is going to come rescue him/her and starts to sleep on his/her own.

I for the life of me can’t get behind this so after reading extensively about various sleep training methods I came up with one of my own. And even though it’s not perfect and Buzz does not sleep through the night, it works for me and always leaves me smiling. So here is what our night-time schedule looks like:

As Buzz rubs her eyes and comes to me to be picked up, everyone gets to kiss her ‘night night’ with her bestowing open mouth smile on everyone who kisses her. Once all the show of mutual admiration is done. I take her to our room, which is dark. Only source of light coming from the open blinds. Buzz gets her milk which she guzzles down and then lets me know she is done by crawling to her crib. I pick her up again, lay her down in her crib as I watch her from my bed.

A few minutes:

Buzz:  Is up standing holding on to the crib rail

Me: Buzz Baithoo(sit down)

Buzz:  immediately she let’s go of the crib rails and sits

Me: Letto (lay down)

Buzz: plops falling whichever direction her body takes her

Me: Ab so jaao (now sleep)

Buzz: promptly closes her eyes

A few seconds later she slowly opens her eyes, smiles and stands up again. And we do a repeat of the same sequence a couple more times, till she gets tired and does not open her eyes. Soon she exhales this extra long breath which is my que to let her sleep, as comb her hair with my fingers one last time before tip-toeing out of the room with a smile on my face 🙂

In Tears

Dear Buzz,

You cried today and there was nothing I could do about it. And now that you are asleep I can’t stop my tears from falling.

The whirlwind events of today and you being stuck in the car seat or in our lap had you full of energy and you refused to take your afternoon nap. You played through the entire hour and more, no matter what I did. The result – you got overtired. And as I drove the car back home from lil-K’s Birthday you got fussy and started crying. I was stuck driving on the freeway with no place to stop while you cried 15 mins till we got home.

You apparently have forgotten all about it and sleep peacefully in your crib. But how do I forget? How do I forget?

-Maa

Yeah hei India meri jaan

A trip back to India is something I anticipate and plan for and wait for. I love going back. I love being there. India is my country..of birth..where I grew up..which I call my own. And I love everything about being there. The people and the warmth they have (and their nose in everyone elses business). The food which actually has some spices added to it. The sound of music heard from the neighbor’s house. The clothes which are vibrant and beautiful and fit the Indian women’s body structure to hide all its flaws and enhances all the best features.

So it was with a lot of excitement that I embarked on my last trip back home. Buzz was a tiny three-month old then and I was heading to India in the peak summer months and my travel companion was Buzz alone. A lot of people voiced a lot of trepidation on my travel plans but not a thing could bring my enthusiasm down. A trip to India, where I get to show off little Buzz to all, and get to eat all the Mangoes I could (lost count of after how many years), was my trip to make and I could not wait.

I had a wonderful, relaxing, joyous stay surrounded by family and friends, where I gorged on awesome food, ate various species of Mangos in varied forms (Milkshake, Ice-cream, Panna, cut in pieces) and tried to shop. This is where things got a little crazy. I was looking to buy a couple of sarees and a few Salwar Kameez. I entered shops and I left shops without buying anything. 

Indian fashion these days I would describe as: Take the cheapest, flimsiest cloth you can find..and I mean the cheapest and flimsiest ’cause the cloth they are now selling as the material for Salwar Kameez is the material I used to buy for the duputta at one time..dye it in some color, put some print in another shade of the same color on it, then finish it off with a block print in the shiniest silver or gold and sell the material for an unheard of price. A quote in one of the shops pretty much summed it up as it went something like ‘Fashion ke daud mein kapde ke koyi guaranty nahein hei’. Really? People are paying good money and there is no guaranty on the cloth you buy? Everywhere I look women were dressed in mirror work, gotta, sittara, jardosi. I mean what happened to the simple cotton kurtas, understated elegance? Why was everyone dressed as if they were heading to the great Indian wedding?

Relief came in form of a small shop in the very corner of a very busy shopping complex. Pure cotton, the khadi, the baatik prints, the beautiful colors, no shine, no shimmer. Added bonus – no crowd. I took my time looking around and selecting what I wanted. Phew..

Travel Thursday – Joshua Tree National Park

I thought I would do ‘Travel Thursday’ every week in conjunction with ‘Wordless Wednesday‘ to write about the picture..some tidbit of information..or some travel log. So here goes the first one.

A climbing buddy of D moved to the outskirts of Joshua Tree National Park (JT) after he retired. Since then his Facebook updates are all about the routes he climbed and pictures of these funny, scary, beautiful looking trees. So when we were looking at a getaway for a couple of days we decided to head to JT, where D could hook up with his friend and rock climb while I indulge in my passion for visiting new places and clicking pictures.

The arid landscape of JT surrounded by amazingly beautiful rock formations with its cracks and holds and abundant sunshine makes it a rock climbing haven.

Joshua Tree..Forest..??..

You can see people climbing one route or another, sunrise to sun down and I am told once you get to the top the view is breathtaking. D was out with his rope and cams as soon as we got there. I saw him off and on from then on forward as I made my way to and fro from our camp or when he summited as he was visible from afar.

Sunset, climber and rock

There are so many precariously balanced rock, defying gravity which also provide relief from the intense sunshine when one is done and ready to take a break. As I sometimes walked and sometimes drove around the park, I would break, rest and move on from such formations..always happy..always at peace..always with a smile on my face.

Amazing rock balancing act

Which gets me to the tree itself, after which the entire park is named. Well Joshua Trees are not really trees. They are giant members of the lily family. The bark is not true bark. In the spring the flowers bud out in various directions and with the sun heat the leaves dry out. The dry leaves slowly harden to form the bark. Another side effect of this is that you can’t tell the age of the tree the conventional way. Well since it’s not true bark you can’t cut the tree to see the rings in it..no bark..no rings..no age.. But the trees are amazing to look at. Growing in every which direction, no two branches, no two trees are the same.

Joshua Tree – leaves and flowers

JT is different but beautiful none the less..no wonder U2 actually named one of their albums after it.