31 weeks

For two weekends now, V and I have been attending childbirth education sessions (aka lamaze classes) at St. Mary’s hospital. These classes are intended to instruct parents to be (the laboring woman and her partner) in breathing and relaxation techniques. In our last class, we were taught the basics of a back rub during labor; the week before it was the breathing exercise. We were in splits on the floor on Sunday watching the antics of the couple next to us. After giving his wife a back rub, the man huffing and puffing from the exertion, paused to very audibly practice the breathing techniques his wife was taught the week before. It was very funny.

Ok, we finally succumbed and bought a new family mobile - the mini van. I am sure the dad-in-training will require special lessons to drive in the middle lane and to try and remember that we are not in a sports car. At our last visit to St. Mary’s we signed up for an inspection of our infant car seat. Yesterday, DiT installed the base for the car seat in both the van and the car. We also unwrapped the carriage systems – the stroller, the carrier and associated accessories gifted to us. It’s weeks before the baby’s arrival, but his transport is already here. This one is going to be spoilt rotten. Meanwhile the mom-to-be has started to put together the things that need go in the bag for a brief hospital stay.

June 4th 2005

It was not a surprise, and I knew about it, but V insisted on keeping my participation in the prep work to the minimum. If you are wondering what in the world I am talking about -- it was our baby shower, well, kind of. We were trying to keep it informal.

V managed to secure the use of the barn used by the township’s youth services. Now I know what you are thinking… a barn! But it really was a fair place – wide-open space for people to gather, a kitchen counter and enough distractions for the kids – a koi pond, table tennis tables, a climbing wall and lots of pace to run around and very importantly lots of clean and spacious rest rooms.

Between V’s picking up the keys and driving to the train station to pick up our friends, Subarna and Eunhee from Philadelphia, the organizer Geetha and the decorations expert Mini and her family arrived at the scene. Others arrived thereafter – Anu, Deepak, Usha, Saji, Jyothy… It was a potluck and we had a decent spread – idlis and sevai, vegetable stew, korma, fried rice, curd rice, payasam among other things and at least two kinds of cakes. And it was not about just good eats either -- Geetha organized a number of games around the baby shower. We cut a cake and opened our gifts (all very useful in the days ahead) before people started on their drive back home.

And just as our friends left, cousin Aju, Narayanan, Anagha and Ananya arrived from Long Island. The girls did justice to the food and appeared to have a great time figuring out the barn. The parents, though tired from the drive, were good sports, as always. They even helped us haul the gifts and goodies back to the apartment.

It was nice to have friends and family to share our joy.

Seemandam

(May 28th 2005)
As the sun rose, the day had the makings of a routine Saturday… laundry, grocery, farmers’ market… Except we did none of those! This day was anything but routine. This was a first for us -- this seemandam; coordinated by Mita at Medha and Sri’s place. We reached Medha and Sri’s place around 11.55am, and everyone seemed well on the ball. Sri and Giri looking spiffy in their designed kurtas; Sri’s dad Rajababu was not to be outdone either. The women were dressed to the nines.



Medha and Sri had enlisted the esoteric catering services of Krishna mama and Revathy mami, who had already set up the dosa-stand on the deck and were ready to churn out the goodies. As events in Medha’s place go this was definitely slim on the guest list – We had Vinayda, Suchuvaini and Abhijit, Subhash, Peeku and Sumeet, Deepti, Seema, Tanika and Nilay, Sailendra and Sindhu, Aravindh was the lone ranger (with Raj too committed to his swords). The others were definitely in-house, including Mita, Medha, Sri, Ananya, Aneesh, Giri, Shyamala and Akshath. And we haven’t forgotten Tatgaru and Nanamma.

Mita had definitely worked overtime to cook up a lot of mouth-watering sweets that included, the traditional Sreekhand, Gulab Jamun, Semya Payasam and Besan Laddoo. Looking a little out of place, but no less savory, was the blueberry pie.

Mita has Shubhada decked up like the Flora… Not the statue in the middle of the fountain, but the goddess of flowers – all green and with garlands and floral bands perched across strategic sections. The fantasia went further. Shubhada did a ‘philum-isytle’ saree change mid-ceremony – from a green one given by aai to another given by Mita. Were this on screen, jewellery and wardrobe credits would go to Mukta aatya, Smitha Kini, Pais, Bhatts, Burras and Kotians. Mita, Peeku and Suchuvaini also offered vocal accompaniment. The only thing missing was rolling cameras. Wait! There were those as well.



And while we are calling it a seemandam, you could call it potarkappad, complete with a proper aarti and coconut OTBP. Though, with some slick editing and nice packaging we could probably market the event to program-strapped television channels back home.

If you thought you were not getting your money’s worth, we had a double header with Aneesh Burra celebrating his first month birthday later that afternoon. Though, clearly, his sister would have liked to claim that. But after all that, we were ready to head home by sundown. Any way you cut it, it was a wonderful day, quite unlike any we’ve ever had.