The Raghavan Family in Bangalore

Friday, April 01, 2005

March 2005 update

Tuesday, March 1, 2005

Charlie took ten steps today with a big ball in his hands. He's thrilled to bits with himself, especially when he stands on his own, not so much when he takes the steps. He's starting to crawl up the steps after Molly these days.

Thursday, March 3, 2005

Went out for a much needed girls' night out with Nicola, Aarti, and Laura. Ate at Mainland China, a great spot off Brigade Road. Each talked about their recent travels: Nicola to Australia with her mum and daughter, Aarti to Coorg and then to London for her brother's engagement party, and Laura to a place called Chickmagalur here in Karnataka (the state that Bangalore's in).

Sat., March 5, 2005

Went to a birthday party at Kumali's, a friend of Maya's. Kumali's mom is Sri Lankan and her dad is German. They live right down the street from us. We ran into a couple we'd met at least twice before. Somehow, we met them only briefly the first two times, but this time we put two and two together and realized that they're among the people who our friend Sriram had given us the contact numbers for before we left the U.S. Sriram and this couple were all at Stanford together. They have two kids around Maya and Molly's age and Sriram thought we'd hit it off. There were also a few other people from the neighborhood at the party who had also been to Charlie's birthday party two months ago.

Sun., March 6, 2005

Went to brunch at Taj West End with Nicola, Aarti and Laura's families. Aarti's daughter, Karishma, and Maya adore each other and love to get together. It's always dicey going to a mid-day brunch with Charlie and Molly (1 and 2 years old), because you know at least one of them is going to melt down and need a nap. Our nanny Celine has Sundays off, so Vani, our cook, came along with us. When Molly got tired, Vani took her for a walk and she fell asleep, taking a nap in the lobby for at least an hour. Charlie got cranky and Badri put him in the baby carrier on his back.

Sunday, March 13

Today is Shivaratri. Shivaratri means "the night of Shiva" It is a festival observed in honor of Lord Shiva (Shiva is one of the main deities of Hinduism). Shiva was married to Parvati on this day. I think I would have been unaware of the festival if it hadn't been for Ratnama: she'd made a beautiful kolom (also known as rangoli--the art of painting designs in powder in front of homes) on our driveway entry.

Amma and Appa arrived from Chennai last night to help hold down the fort while Badri and I take a little trip to Delhi. It's actually a business trip for Badri. Maya loves doing puzzles and reading with Amma (Patti--grandma--to Maya) and Charlie pushes his little bike all around the ground floor looking for Thatha (grandpa).

Went out for ice cream and pizza (in that order) to celebrate Appa's 69th birthday at the neighborhood Pizza Corner, which has one of those bins with balls that kids can jump around in.
Maya loved jumping around in the ball bin with all the kids who were celebrating one boy's 5th birthday, Molly went in the bin once in a while, but preferred walking back and forth on the wooden arched walkway leading to the bin. Charlie was a little cranky until the ice cream came, them that made him happy.

Monday, March 14

Badri left for Delhi in the a.m. and I in the afternoon on the 2 1/2 hour flight. This my first time leaving the kids, other than the overnighter I spent in Bangalore at the Sheraton for my birthday four months ago. I must say I was very excited. Read magazines and wrote in my journal on the airplane for the first time in four years. Sat next to two very interesting women from Paris, both biologists studying human genetics and doing research in Pondicherry and Bangalore for a couple weeks.

Badri met me at the airport and our driver, Mr. Singh, brought us to Sakura, the most wonderful sushi restaurant I've been to in a long time. We were the only non-Japanese diners there. It's so funny having a cell phone on you at all times, when nobody knows where you might be at any given moment. After ordering dinner, I got a call from Mary Louise, a friend in Bangalore I hadn't seen in a while, but who I knew had had a baby at the end of the year. Turns out, she was calling to find out what formula we used on Charlie (expats are never sure whether what they can get here is anything at all like what we use in the states).

Tuesday

Slept in until 7 am! Soaked in a hot bubble bath and read while Badri slept in. Classy bathroom, like the one at the Maurya Sheraton also in Delhi, where there's some kind of heater built in behind the bathroom mirror so it doesn't get fogged up after a bath. After Badri awoke, I opened the curtains to a beautiful view of gardens behind the Taj Mahal Hotel, with a mist hanging around the trees and a view of the city.

Read the paper and had coffee in the room, then went to breakfast at 9:30. This is luxury, because we're usually eating by 6:30 or 7 when with the kids. Beautiful dining room looking out to the gardens and pool. Evidently, it's been one of the most popular cafes for the last 30 years. Badri says it's partly because it was the only thing open at night for young people to come to.

Heavenly breakfast buffet. Met a very interesting woman from Texas at breakfast. I saw her taking notes at the buffet, so when she walked by our table I asked if she was a travel writer. Turns out, she's a food writer, writing a piece for TALL Magazine, profiling hotels which have amenities which cater to tall people, like longer beds, for example. I asked her how she got into her line of work, because, for me, that would be a dream job--traveling and writing about new places and food. She suggested I start with technical writing and go from there.

Also had a nice chat with one of the food servers, Astrid, who is a student of hotel/restaurant management. She's from Mexico City and is spending a year in India, between Delhi and Rajasthan, for practical experience.

Went to Khan Market and browsed around a stationers and wonderful bookstore. Khan Market is a square block of cafes, tailors, pharmacies, bookstores, etc., where Badri spent time as a kid. In fact, his tailor from boyhood is still in business there. It's at a photoshop here that we had Maya's first professional photo taken in May of 2001, so this place has some history for us. Picked up several books, among them Five Point Someone, a book about one guy's experience at IIT Delhi (Indian Institute of Technology). I thought I'd read it to get an idea of what Badri's life was like at IIT Kanpur way back when.

After Khan Market, Badri went back to the hotel for a call, and I took a swim, followed by a massage and sauna. I know--decadence, decadence. I feel very lucky and spoiled at times.

I really enjoyed Delhi. The pollution has decreased since they outlawed two-stroke engines three or four years ago (when I was last there) and all buses and taxis are running on natural gas.

Wed., March 16, 2005

Just back from a few days in Delhi--actually, one whole day and two nights. The kids were fine without us, of course.

Weaning Charlie. I'm having a tougher time of it than he is.

Saturday, March 19

An old buddy of Badri's, Shankar, stopped by tonight with his three sons (10 and 6 year old twins). Maya was in heaven learning checkers from the older boy. Charlie, who was about to fall asleep in his dinner only just before they arrived, perked up and was happy playing on his own(!) in the midst of all the socializing. Molly was feeling a little under the weather, so sat cozied up to me for at least half an hour, which I thoroughly enjoyed (calm amidst the frequent storms). Badri and Shankar have known each other for nearly 30 years. They met in 5th standard, when they were about 10 years old, and were inseparable for about 10 years. Now, all these years later, they work in the same office building, Shankar at AOL one floor above Badri. What a small world.

Sunday, March 20

Amma and Appa returned to Chennai today on the 2:10 train. The children thoroughly enjoyed their visit.

Monday, March 21

Tonight at dinner I mentioned to Celine that my time in Delhi made me think more about going back to work. Molly said, "Don't go to work Mama," and Maya said, "You can't go back to work Mommy. You have to stay and raise the children." I said, "But Celine Auntie's here," and Maya replied, "but you have to be here, too." It really cracked me up.

Maya stays home most of the week with unexplained fever and cough.

Wed., March 23, 2005

Today's a relatively good day, compared to yesterday, anyway. I was in hormonal tears over weaning Charlie yesterday (he's 14 months now). I know there are different schools of thought out there: on one hand, why wean him at all, if he's still into it? on the other hand, he's 14 months--do it now or else he's want to nurse until he's 4. The deciding factor (for all of you who are just dying to know about this:) was that I'm feeling particularly sucked dry--literally and figuratively.

Tonight I'll be going to my friend Nicola's house for dinner, along with our friend Laura. Nicola's from the UK and is married to a Kashmiri (Kashmir is a disputed region to the north of India and Pakistan). Her guy, Bilal, has been out of town for a long time (how many months I'm not sure) and she's in need of some fem support.

On Friday night we leave for Kuantan, an island in Malaysia. We'll be going for six days and, again, Celine has agreed to come along with us to help out. As so often happens, we're waiting to see whether at least half of the six of us are healthy before we leave. Two weeks ago I had a sore throat and passed it on to Charlie, who also got an ear infection, then last week Maya was out of school most of the week (fever, cough, stomachache). She passed it on to Badri, who is still sick and has passed it on to Molly. Molly's minimalist appetite has dwindled yet further--it was all I could do to have her eat a few pistachio nuts (she likes to call them cashews) and a few bites of pear. She's becoming thin compared to what she used to be, but then I suppose that happens to toddlers.

Monday, March 28, 2005

Newsflash: no trip to Kuantan. We'd postponed and planned to leave March 30 instead of the 25th, but then Charlie's getting a cold again, and Badri's still under the weather, so we ended up canceling the whole thing. There will be some penalties, but we didn't want to risk a long overnight trip with a couple of us feeling iffy. And to delay it would have meant the weather would be hotter the later we went.

This afternoon I noticed that Molly had an abcess where I suppose there was an ingrown fingernail. Gave Dr. Chinnappa a call and took her over to his office (12 minutes with no traffic, luckily; sometimes it can take 45 minutes to get there). He sprayed some local anaesthetic then poked it and drained it. Of course, Molly got hysterical. Cost us 250Rs (about $6) for the office visit. I tried to ask him why the kids and Badri were constantly playing "tag, you're it" with colds, fevers, etc. but Molly was screaming too much.

Came home to our friends Sarah and her four children, Martha, Sammy, Daniel, and Katie, playing here with Maya and Charlie.

It's now April 6, so I'll close here and send out March's update.