The Menons at Coorg

Amidst 35000 acres of coffee plantation, greenery, beauty, peace and tranquillity the Menon family galloped on their 2 horses (I mean cars) and headed straight into the very picturesque and quaint estate house of Tata Plantations Trail at Pollibetta, Coorg. The target was to spend a leisurely weekend eating, chatting, playing cards, selective sightseeing and overall spending some real quality time as an extended family – V’s parents, bro and wife, me and the 2 devils– aged 6 and 1.5 years.

A jeep tour of the coffee plantation (we are a lazy family!!), an adventurous trip to the Irupu Falls (with rain, muck, umbrellas, baby tantrums all included), loads of hot tea (yeah ....coffee is mostly exported so one doesn’t get to taste good quality coffee here) and onion pakoras, fresh sweet lime juice on the breakfast table, cards session which the senior Menons and their 2 lil sons enjoyed thoroughly while D and I managed the devils and bitched about life in general – all inclusive it was a lovely time spent with the family. The last leg of our journey included a peek at the Namdroling Monastry - a patch of land in the heart of Coorg where one sees hundreds of Lamas in their traditional maroon and yellow garb.

PS: Lest I should forget 1 acre = 43,000 sqft so one can imagine how painfully large is 35,000 acres and what a logistical nightmare would it be to run an estate of this size. As a comparision my apartment is 1250 sqft of BLISS!!

New antics, new skills, new demeanour

Turning 20 month old is all about imitation, imagination and creativity these days.

One of her favourite pastimes is ‘tattooing’ her doll. The end product is slightly scary!!!!

Sayonara......heading for her cousin's birthday party in her newly acquired Kimono.

Trying out her hand in creating a traditional pookalam for Onam

Posing for an artsy film- in her traditionals for Ethnic Day at the daycare

Que Sera Sera.....wondering where life (or these slippers will take her?

A year gone by

While V and I were trying to figure out how to commemorate T's one year homecoming anniversary on July 17 (yes she completed a year with us!) T blew the bugle loud and clear at 0530hrs on July 17. V and I woke up to a wailing T who had downloaded a pajama full of crap - yep T had a bad bout of diarrhea this weekend. Nevertheless the spirited girl that T is....she was pretty cheerful the entire day and frequently looked forward to her cooked apples- potatoes-boiled rice meal.

Approaching the 1 year mark

Yesterday, July 13 marked the 1 year anniversary of my 'temporary resignation' from my job and annoucement of Tara's homecoming at work. My boss left a beautiful bunch of flowers at my desk when I reached work that morning and asked if he could hug me :))))

Little did I know that a year from then Tara (who turned 19 months today) and I will be talking to a 'duckie' while she rides it in the neighbour park.

A new woman

17 months old physically and 2 years old mentally. That’s Tara’s state today. With it came some freebees – tantrums, tantrums and more tantrums. Tantrums about food choices, tantrum about insisting to colour the floor with her crayons, tantrums about holding (and trying to smell) one shoe in her hand while wearing one and loads more. A wicked way to test the miniscule quota of patience I was born with and unfortunately continue to nurture. Timeouts, scolding (or rather screaming), a tiny lil smack once in a while, reading up and trying a new trick as and when the rest ceases to work...all this and more is truely making a new woman out of me . No wonder parenting is referred to as life changing experience...

Catch her here in her traditionals on Vishu day (Malayalam New Year) insisting on holding the lotion bottle and insisting that I open it for her just before we were suppose to leave for the celebration

Lightening

It is one of those atmospheric evenings in Bangalore – the slight drizzle, the breeze, the sweet smell of wet earth. In the midst of all this a lightning strikes me...

Chatting up with the lady who cooks for me while she folds the big mountain of washed clothes I get to know that she is a graduate from St. Josephs College – a college of well repute and from where emerged the ever famous and successful Sabeer Bhatia (hotmail fame), Rahul Dravid, SM Krishna, Syed Kirmani, Robin Uttapa, couple of my colleagues from work and my own nephew. Poverty, a bad marriage, few medical mishaps, a job as a receptionist, a booming catering business gone wrong, a grocery business mis-calculated......some more distress risks later she lands herself a job of a cook, a cleaner a helper.

Whom should I thank for a blessed life that I lead and yet crib, fight, argue, get distressed, watch Desperate Housewives with such empathy.

Feb and March - whats been happening?

Its been a while since I blogged. Well, numerous things have kept me busy. Firstly I let go of my babysitter effective 1st March as I felt she wasnt adding any value to her role - no innovation was the primary cause of her perishment (I mean perishment of her role). My cook took loads of leave and 2 weeks back I decided to donate her back to her family. So have been trying to cook, manage Tara and keep my sanity with Vinay - verry verry tough!!! In the meantime I also started looking out for a daycare option for Tara and found a pretty decent one some 3kms from where we live. Its a no carpet and no diaper zone so we are happy about it. A lazy mom like me just wasnt getting enough courage to let go of Tara's diapers, so this daycare has been a welcome change.

Just before Tara joined the daycare took our very first family break at a quaint place in Mysore called The Windflower Resort and Spa. Vinay had a great round of golf (right next door to the resort), I covered myself in chocolate- the place has a fabulous spa and Tara got to see some 'cats' in the famous and very well maintained Mysore Zoo. Overall a nice n relaxed holiday.

Tara's started with the daycare and seems to have adjusted to it pretty well - fingers & toes crossed, we got a new cook who used to own a catering business and is a fab fab cook - how long will she stay depends on how long will our luck last. Now my beloved maid is on leave due to a surgery, but I dont really mind as I am getting some physical excercise swepping n mopping the house along with doing the vessels, watering the plants, cleaning the loos - the sweat on my forehead feels GOOD (I am serious!!)

In the meantime my lil one is already 15 months old and never forgets to take a good look at herself in the mirror before heading out for her 'tata'. Tara has developed a decent volcabulary inspite of being bombarded with Bengali, Malyalam, English, Hindi and Kannada from all angles. Here is a list of words she can speak. Other than these words she can follow most of the directions given in English and few in Bengali (like Jol Khabey?)

1. Amma



2. Atta = for achha (father in Malayalam)



3. Cat/Tat



4. Bou bou = dog



5. mum-key = monkey



6. teddy



7. tata



8. mum mum=food/water/milk



9. wa wa= sleep



10. aunty



11. bebey=baby



12. papa=kannada for baby



13. bool= ball



14. baba=refers to her nursery rhymes DVD



15. Poo poo and pee pee

... and life carries on...

Negotiation

This 13 month old amazed me today when I saw her attempting a negotiation cum barter deal with a 3 year old fella in our apartment block. The boy that I am referring to is Rakshit who is the grandson of 401 Uncle (actual name is Mr. Sundarajan but I prefer to call him '401 Uncle' owing to the apartment he lives in). So when Tara and I get bored we take the stairs up to 401 Uncle's apartment, play with Rakshit for a while, chat with 401 Uncle and 401 Aunty and head back to our boring lives. This evening Rakshit was in mean mood and decided not to let Tara touch any of his toys - he kept pulling away whatever she laid her hands on. Tara was upset when he took away a nice big red ball away from her. She went upto him whined a bit and didnt get any favourable response, so she came to me pulled her cap from my hand and threw it at Rakshit (not a smart start to negotiation - JUST like her mom!) and put her hands out to catch the ball (she thought Rakshit would give her the ball in exchange of the cap). But our meanie 3 year old (hope his mom is not reading my blog) just wouldnt give in, so Tara pulled back her cap from his lap (as aggreesivey as she threw it at hime before) and came whining back to me. Now now I understand that Tara's execution of the negotiation deal was slightly annoying and terribly unsmart but atleast she tried :).

Here is a picture of Tammy Cat post her haircut

The Bong Immersion Month

Tara, Vinay and I had a TERRIFIC vacation across the last 3 weeks of Dec09. The vacation was ‘home delivered’ and started with Maa-Bapi’s visit on Dec 9 who were closely followed by the Mukerji Gang from HangKang on Dec 23 who stayed put (and cooked n cleaned ofcourse) for the next 10 days.

For Vinay and me this was really after a loooooooooong loooooooooooong time that we got my side of the family over for 3 whole weeks and Vinay went through a comprehensive Bong Immersion ritual – yup the Menon apartment smelt of mustard oil and lau n bori n kumro n rui maach all the way until we ushered in 2010 with some burpy Chinese food.

Tara spent a fabulous fun-filled time with her Nana-Didu, Mashimoni-Wella, Didibhai and Dadabhai who spoilt her rotten.

Fun-filled it was – from a decently grand first birthday party, to learning how to walk (the video says it all), to getting to go the cinemas at such a young age (Tara blissfully slept throughout the movie ‘3 Idiots’), to watching her Mashimoni & cousins paint ceramic at Claytopia, constantly hearing about the goofy golfing escapades of her Achhan and Wella and playing endlessly with Dadabhai n Didibhai.

Not to forget, she was very much a part of elaborate family meals at Coast to Coast, Kubay, Mainland China, Golkonda Fort, ice cream at Corner House, burpy Chinese from Chungs & Peking, pizzas n pastas from Dominos and FAME respectively. With 6 adults at home the water supply and my cook gave us trouble off and on but we still managed to hold the fort and enjoy ourselves – thanks to my big sis who continues to show clear -sparkling-brilliance of leadership when it comes to home management!!

With so much happening around her Tara was in her element and seemed to have suddenly grown up – she displayed oodles of attitude and a wide range of emotions – I think I’ll get her married by this summer.