Dress Designers

We (Sumathi & Myself) are the official dress designers for our daughter. But we always disagree on a lot of points. I would always suggest some thing hip like the entire back open / sleeveless, which Sumathi would chide as ridiculous. Yet we still get on with each other and enjoy shopping for Manase. We had to attend a cousin’s wedding, and this being the first wedding after our daughter was born, we unanimously decided that our daughter should wear the time tested “Pattu Pavadai”. For the uninitiated it’s a silk skirt which any self respecting tamil girl child should posses. Sumathi had a small piece of silk along with her for the skirt. So off we went shopping in the pretext of getting a dress material for the top. I got hell a lot of CD’s / few books and Sumathi got herself a top. But that’s an entirely different story.

Now back to the original one. With great pains I had explained to Sumathi with sketches et al the idea in my mind and she too listened with great patience mean while our daughter had great fun with the orange polythene wrapper from the dress shop. ( Yes we are that kind of parents and let her indulge a few times). The next day my wife went to a tailor and half of my crazy ideas were declared impractical by the tailor and turned down. Any way my wife reached for an agreement with her and got it made in a days time. That is the kind of negotiation skills Sumathi has and I can see your jaw drop. Now some eye candy.

Chitra Pournami

As kid I used to be in love with the beach. It has not changed even now. Since Tuesday being a holiday and Chitra Pournami falling on the same day (Full Moon day in the Tamil Month of Chithirai) we decided that we would take Manase to the Beach (her first trip there) and have our dinner there. We roped in my Aunt and cousin. My aunt is very famous in her circles for the mean sambar sadham she cooks.

Cooked some food at home and packed all the stuff like mats, water bottles, napkins, garbage bag etc. Bundled Manase in a Car and off we went to the Besant Nagar Beach. Manase was fasscinated by the sights and sounds of the Beach. We had even got her a white outfit to celebrate the occasion. She was staring at the Ballon vendor / merry go round / corn cord vendor / bajji kadai etc and played for some time. We had dinner sitting under the stars on a moon lit beach, while grandma took care of her.

Her grandpa was overjoyed by the so called picnic with his dear grand daughter. The beach was crowded though. My wife as usual was furiously clicking away in her digital camera as if there was no tomorrow and instructed me to take pictures of her as well. Sigh I do not know when this is going to change. Our honeymoon story deserves a special post. Manase became a little bit cranky and we packed all the stuff in a hurry and headed back home. Once back home she was her normal self cooing and smiling towards us.

Back after a hiatus

I sad been away from the blogging world for quite some time. Wife got Pregnant and delivered a healthy baby girl bang on Deepavali. The best gift I have ever got in my life. We have named her Manase meaning "one with a sound mind". Though it may sound clichéd for sure she is our bundle of joy. I always wanted a girl, not that I would have loved a boy lesser. She is all 6 months old now and has started to crawl and explore the corners of house keeping us on our toes. I got inspired by a lot of mommy / daddy bloggers. We used to discuss about at home and my wife urged me to start blogging again so that we can record our day to day experiences and share with Manase later. My favorite pastime nowadays is dressing up Manase, and shopping for her clothes. I have tried my hands at bathing her quite a few times and she loves it too. But she wails in protest when we dry her with a towel after her bath. I have mastered the art of changing diapers and nappies, giving her cream / oil massages / feeding her etc. But its her mom and grand mom who do it mostly. My in laws stay along with us. So it has been easy so far. Some how she has associated the word tata with going out and always wants to go tata. Had been to my parents place some time back and she did not give any trouble. We took her to Guruvayoor for her annaprasanam (first time rice feeding) ceremony and she took it with gusto. We had dressed her up in a traditional pavadai / chattai for the first time according to her grandpa’s wish. I am contemplating about changing my blog title relating it to Manase. Let us see. And here you get to see my lovely daughter waving at you.



You will get to hear more about Manase's antics in the days to come.