Category Archives: Jahnavi

Songs we are Singing Around the House These Days

Snubnose and I have traditionally gone through mad singing phases where we both latch on to a song, and it becomes our song for the next few weeks or months. I have mentioned some previous songs in some posts here, here, here, and here.

This summer, it’s the turn of the King of Pop himself – Elvis the Pelvis and his famous hit – Love me Tender.

It’s kinda funny that the snubnose loves this song so much considering he died almost fifty years? before she was born. But, she’s too young to be hipster/cool, and it’s a pleasure to hear her warble this song along with him.

I have even written out the lyrics for her in her notebook, and she’s ended up learning the complete song itself .

Another song that we sing around the house these days is much more modern. While talking recently with a friend about Western popular music I realized that I have absolutely no clue about what’s happening in Western music these days. My tastes seem to have gotten stuck around the grungeish phase of the early 90s.

Anyway, what’s youtube for if not to discover unfamiliar artists/music? And I stumbled upon this one by Demi Lovato – Skyscraper. I”ll be honest and say the song doesn’t do too much for me, but it’s easy to sing, the lyrics are simple, and the message is nice. So, snubnose is learning this song as well this summer.

Nothing like her childish, very off-tune voice to bring a smile to my face

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New Experiences for Snubnose and Piglet

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Last week we went on a short holiday to Chennai to spend some quality time with my mom and grandmom.

Chennai at this time of the year is always boiling hot (it’s Agni nakshatram meaning fiery star referring to the hottest time of the year), and we must have been absolutely nuts to try this trip. However, snubnose was getting restless at home during the summer holidays and since I couldn’t take time off from work to go for a longish trip…a long weekend in Chennai it had to be.

Surprisingly though, it was pretty good fun, and chock-full of new experiences for both the snubnose and piglet.

Very quickly we realized that outdoor activities were pretty much impossible. After a miserable trip to Birla Planetarium where piglet all but melted while we waited in queues in almost 40 degrees temperature, we retreated to the comfort of malls where there was enough fun activities for the kids while at the same time maintaining our cool.

Funcity (a chain of games arcades present in a lot of malls in India) is one of the absolute best places for kids to hang out. Tons of rides, games, and rather useless prizes to be won. Since this was already a favorite with the snubnose, we decided it was a safe if slightly predictable option for her.

Snubnose for the first time in her life worked up the courage to go on a lot of rides all alone. Usually, I accompany her on most everything she does, but this time I was occupied with piglet and so she had to try the rides on her own.

I was worried for her, but she did absolutely fine going on the Drop Zone, Columbus, and Bumping Cars without getting hassled or worked up. She’s growing up so fast all of a sudden. During this trip, I could really make out just how much she has matured in the past two years…she was an absolute trooper, a very mature and helpful young girl while still being her fun-loving giggly self.

Here is a rather blurry shot of her driving the Bumpy Car:

As for piglet, his travel experiences were primarily of the culinary kind. During this trip, he sampled most anything that was on offer and it was great to discover his likes and dislikes.

Piglet does not have a sweet tooth for sure. He tried ice creams for the first time during this trip, and he didn’t like them too much, neither the vanilla nor the chocolate flavors could entice him for more than a few sample licks.

He does gravitate towards the carbs though. He happily wolfed down however much he could of the chilli cheese toast (with chilli flakes!), garlic bread, and even was tempted by the bruschetta although he did look askance at the tomatoes on the bread. He even loved the nachos and potato chips. Salt and carb overload!!! Just like mom

Piglet also made his first trip to the beach. We went to the beautiful Taj Vivanta near Kovalam beach, and enjoyed a wonderful non-crowded beach experience. Snubnose and I escorted Piglet into the water…the expressions on his face when the water hit him were priceless…shock and awe is the phrase that slips into my mind.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t take too many photos of our trip. Piglet is super-frisky these days and it was impossible to photograph anything. Most of the photos I took during our trip were at home chilling out at my mom’s place, or shots taken one-handed while trying to hold on to Piglet and stop him from grabbing the iPhone.

Oh well, at least we had a great time

Snubnose’s Humble Contributions to US National Poetry Month

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April is National Poetry month in USA. We don’t have anything equivalent in India, but when I saw The Picky Girl’s post on blackout poetry month, it reminded me that I needed to post about the snubnose’s efforts at poetry.

In her school, they encourage different forms of creative writing. Some of the more verbal/linguistically advanced wrote some lovely haiku, which I unfortunately missed to photograph.

The snubnose decided on a pictorial approach creating something she calls a shape poem.

Here’s a poem on watermelons, this was one of the first that she created:

And here’s my favorite one on planet Earth:

Btw, if you are thinking, what on earth is a shape poem, well, there’s more info on it here.

Wordless Wednesdays: Krishna and his Two Mothers

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Snubnose does an art work of Krishna with his two mothers using oil pastels

A proud snubnose showing off her work

Components of a Book

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This year, the snubnose and her classmates have started doing projects: in-depth investigations into a single topic and then having to write about it. Most of these in-depth investigations and write ups are a lot of hooey, but there was one project that was super-impressive.

This was a project on materials – all types of materials from silk, to cotton, to gold, and clay. Each student was given one material to research on. Then they had to get together in a group and write a compiled book with all their findings.

This is what they came up with…

Book of Materials – Cover

Introduction and TOC

Various Components of a Book

Snubnose wrote this page on clay

A page on silk

Glossary

More words explained

Index

These photos don’t do justice to the awesomeness of the book. The cover of the book was lovely – a collage with different materials glued on. Their teacher wrote out a brief introduction to the book and then the kids took over. With some basic guidelines about page layout in hand, they created a setup where each child was given a page to write about the material of their choice. The snubnose’s choice of material was clay and I loved how she went about researching – basically asking me to google about clay haha . Anyway, once she had all her facts in hand, it was pretty straightforward to write a page about clay.

But what really impressed me in the end was how they compiled an index, a TOC, and a glossary. So much of work and effort and yes, teamwork went into it. All us parents were in awe at the final product .

Snubnose Experiences her First Sleepover

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Tonight, snubnose gets to experience her very first sleepover. Her school is having an astronomy session – a night under the stars bundled in a sleeping bag and armed with a telescope. There will be a stargazing session and some discussions on the moon’s waxing and waning. Adding in story time and snacks, I just know that everyone is going to have a blast.

Needless to say, the snubnose is super-excited, and so am I, to be honest. We spent last evening packing up her bag. She selected her favorite Minnie Mouse bag, decided on her favorite pajamas, and her trusty Panda sweatshirt before rounding it off with a fish pillow and a huggie doll. In some ways, she’s all grown up, but in some ways, she’s still such a baby

In fact, she was so excited last night, she had trouble falling asleep. Anyway, today she doesn’t have regular school. Around 4pm, we drop her off at school and pick her up tomorrow morning.

I have a feeling this is just going to be the start of a number of sleepovers.

Wordless Wednesdays: Snubnose Does a Flower in the Style of Georgia O’Keefe

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Moving Home and Other Updates

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Folks following me on Instagram probably know that we recently moved house. Two years ago, we opted to build our own house because:

We thought we could do it cheaper.
We would have complete creative control.

Two years, many delays, and a lot of hard work and sleepless nights later, we have finally moved in. Thinking back, did we make the right decision to go it on our own, with minimal support from the architect? The honest answer is I am not very sure. Sure, we managed to keep complete creative control and managed to whittle down the cost of things, but we spent a heck of a lot of time on it, and considering we are two working people with small kids to take care of as well, you can imagine the pressure. You also definitely need to bone up a lot on house building stuff if you don’t want to get cheated by the contractors. We ended up spending a lot of time on research and learning.

Anyways, we are now somewhat settled…still living out of boxes, but at least we have a reasonable idea of what’s in which box, so we can dig it out .

I wish I had a lot of fun and exciting things to say about our house moving, but really we just about managed to survive it. I used the move as an opportunity to clean up home and get rid of a lot of clutter that had spread through our house. My goodness, I think I threw whole cartons filled with random scribblings, old plastics, broken toys, and just stuff. It really felt like a fresh start. Nothing, I say nothing makes things feel new like getting rid of old, outdated baggage.

Here’s a pic of the mess that was our house during the move:

Moving mess

That’s not to say that we didn’t find some gems hidden. I love this old artwork that the snubnose had done (I think during her K1 or K2 days), and I can’t believe that it had just drifted into some random box. The movers were about to use it as wrapping paper before I spotted them and salvaged this one.

An Old Artwork by the Snubnose

Our new house is still a work-in-progress (not major things)…mostly woodwork and plumbing, and some much-needed baby proofing to make sure the piglet does not get into places he has no business to be in. Right now, piglet is at the friskiest stage (14 months), and he not only wants to get into everything, he’s strong enough to ram his way through if access is blocked. Within a day of moving into our new place, he had learnt to climb the stairs and he’s been climbing up and down ever since. Our existing baby gates from our old apartment are not wide enough for the stairwell, and so we need to get new gates made everywhere to prevent him from running off wild and getting hurt. He’s pretty fast on his feet, and while I feel proud of his athletic feats, it’s also extremely wearying running after him everywhere.

Getting the new gates built means a lot of strangers tramping through our house, a lot of noise, and a lot of equipment left scattered on the floors. This is of course heaven for the piglet who is extremely curious about that strange-looking saw or the washer for the plumbing (yuck)!, and guess whose job it is to run after him and keep him occupied with his toys and books, when something so much more interesting is going on in the next room? Me of course. It’s been a pretty draining two weeks, and today I was just so exhausted, with a scratchy throat and feverish feeling going round that I just had to put a sick leave and try to take it easier today.

Which brings me to some other personal news…the snubnose recently started ballet classes at Yanna Lewis. She’s been wanting to learn for a really long time. I wasn’t keen on it because the timings were inconvenient, but when I saw her looking up ballet performances on youtube and trying out the steps herself, well, then I knew I needed to at least give the classes a shot. Well, the timing is still inconvenient, the classes and the costumes cost a small fortune, but the snubnose loves her dance teacher and she loves her classes, and so for now at least, ballet it is. Today evening, I dredged up some hidden energy to take her (and the piglet for watching) to the ballet class, and it was a good hour’s drive each way, in heavy traffic. Sigh!

Wordless Wednesdays: Some Random Photos Taken In and Around Pondicherry

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In the lobby of the Accord Hotel in Pondicherry

Running around the hotel lobby

Ceiling of the Accord Hotel in Pondicherry

Outside the World War 1 Memorial on the Promenade

Gandhi statue on the Promenade

Things We Saw and Did in Pondicherry

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The last week of December turned out to be unexpectedly active. None of us had planned any travel at all. I had a vague hope that I may be able to take a couple of days off and visit my family in Chennai, but considering how hectic December was, I was okay with just quietly unwinding at home too.

Then an unplanned argument arose at home – we were arguing about something really random, and in the course of the argument, we decided that a break was in order. It was only the next day when K called me at work (when I was neck-deep in work!!), that I realized that

He was serious.
All arrangements were made and I could not back out.
And, that in spite of all the inconvenience of finishing up work, applying for leave, packing, etc…I really, really wanted to go and take a break

Within the space of a couple of hours that evening, we decided on places to go and see, booked rooms, and arranged transport. In Chennai of course, we stayed at mom’s but we also planned a short getaway to Pondicherry, which is fast becoming one of my favorite places to visit.

I remember Pondicherry (Pondy as we call it), being a sleepy, one-horse town in the nineties. But the recent emphasis on tourism and arts has made it one of the more charming and eclectic places to visit in South India.

When we went though it was raining and we couldn’t take advantage of the beach or our hotel’s sweet swimming pool causing the snubnose to pout and declare the trip a total loss. However, we still managed to have a good time eating and shopping, and generally taking in the sights.

We were late starting from home and it was past two when we reached Pondy. We checked in at our hotel, and immediately rushed for some food. A quick scan on my Foursquare app told us that Le Hidesign Cafe was nearby and was well-reviewed and so we made our way there.

Here are some photos:

Colorful exterior

The Hidesign Cafe Menu in the form of a Newspaper

Lighting on the Ceiling. I’m sure it would have looked gorgeous in the night,

Eating cheeselings

A Good Time at Hidesign Cafe

We were the only customers, so the piglet loved the freedom to run loose

All together

I can’t recommend Le Hidesign cafe highly enough. The place is quite unassuming and they take their time with the food. However, there was a plate of cheeselings to satisfy the kids, and the beer was nice and chill, so very quickly we moved into laid-back holiday mood. The food is mainly continental, but with enough variety in both veg and non-veg sections. I had ravioli stuffed with mushrooms, and it was just heaven. My father-in-law loved his grilled chicken, it was done to perfection, and the chicken very tender. K was also pleased with his spaghetti with prawns. They also made a special omelet for the snubnose, which she enjoyed.

The best part of the lunch was the service. The waitress was so kind enough to walk the piglet around the cafe while we ate our lunch in peace. It’s a small place, and he was always within our eye sight but it was still pleasant to be able to eat our lunch without interruptions while she walked around stopping him from licking the floor, and other such embarrassing and gross behavior. By the end of the lunch, the two had become fast friends.

My only regret is that we were too full to attempt what I am sure were the utterly divine desserts on the menu. What makes it even sadder is that for some reason or the other during our entire trip, we never had any desserts although Pondicherry supposedly has the most awesome bakeries .

Anyway, post-lunch was sight-seeing and shopping. We went to the Promenade where the snubnose blew off some of her excess energy.

For once, she was happy to mug for the camera and we managed to get some lovely shots with her and K in front of the statue of Lord Dupleix, and on the beach.

We also paused to take a shot of Le Dupleix hotel. Somehow, I don’t think we did justice to the architecture of this place. It’s really a lovely building.

We then did a lot of walking around looking for antique shops. K likes antique furniture,I don’t, and when the opportunity arose I did a quick detour to go to Yaka Home Design, which is a home shop that just suits my style. I loved their range of cane outdoor furniture

Cane Chair from Yaka

Since they say they also do custom orders, I am dreaming about having some cane furniture made to order for the terrace garden in our new house. For now though, I picked out the cutest white flower lampshade that I am totally in love with. My only regret? I should have gone all the way and just got the lampshade in the largest size they have .

We then moved on to Amethyst/La Maison Rouge. Amethyst is a famous cafe and shop in Chennai and one of my favorite hangouts, and so I wanted to explore the Pondicherry one as well.

Like the Chennai Amethyst, this one is also an old colonial house, with some very nice things. The atmosphere was also lovely enough that we were willing to rest our feet and try some of their cocktails, but their service was so unenthusiastic, that we left within minutes. Beautiful but very unwelcoming place! I did love the Titanic chandelier on the ceiling made of old plastic bottles. So creative! Really, my trip seems to have been all about lighting

Interesting Display from La Maison Rouge/Amethyst

By now, it was late, and we were ravenously hungry so we popped over to The Promenade Hotel for dinner. They have a famed Christmas buffet and our expectations were high. Unfortunately, they were too high. The buffet spread was average, and so was the a-la carte food we ordered. What was nice was the ambience. We took an outside table, the weather was pleasant, and the sea-breeze very calming. We ended up having a nice time anyway.