My First shopping Trip

Long time Eh?

Well, I was busy growing up. I am 2 months old and have learned quite a few tricks. We will talk about the tricks later. First, all the happenings since my Scranton trip.

First was my, ouuuu it hurts even to tell - My first set of shots. I know it is needed to keep me healthy and prevent infections so that I can go out and start enjoying the world. So I have to bear a little pain. It is okay. Funny part was I got Mickey Mouse band-aid that looked cute

Then Sudha doddamma and Sumathi Ajji visited us from Detroit. I quickly became friends with Achyuta and Sucheta (Sudha Doddamma's sons). We watched some cartoons, ate together and slept together. You should have seen the expression on Achyuta's face once when I threw up on him. What could I do? He over fed me. Was it my problem? You be the judge.

Biggest of all is my first shopping spree. All of us went to Woodbury commons so that Siriajja and ammamma can pick some things to take back to India. There we went to quite a few shops (Polo Children's Shop, Carter's, Gap etc.) I lost count of shops we visited. There were so many people and so many shops. I looked around for quite some time and then decided to leave shopping to appa and amma and slept off.

It was dark when I woke up and I was still in stroller and in some store. I decided to ring the bell to say it is time to go home (or time for me to eat? :-)) and then suddenly in a rush we were back at home with a lot of shopping bags!

See you later
Saaranga

Legend:
Doddamma - Aunt
Ajji, Ammamma - Grandmother
Ajja - Grandfather
Amma - Mother
Appa - Father

Scranton PA

Folks,

Yesterday (10 Aug) I had been to Leela Ajji's place at Scranton PA. Alok (Leela Ajji's eldest son) graduated from Univ of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and is moving to NC State for his Doctoral study. So for the good wishes and blessings from God, there was Ganapathi homa and the yearly Durga Namaskara pooja at their house

We left early in a hurry. It was raining a little bit. Amma and Ammamma tried hard so that I would not get wet in the rain till I reach our car. Pappa had loaded most of the things into the car before I sat in my "seat". I don't like to sit idle in that small seat you know. It makes me uncomfortable. But it was for a short period. Pappa started driving and things whizzed past me at great speeds. I was counting "one tree" "two trees" "three trees" ...zzzzz..

I don't know what happened in between. When I woke up, we were at Leela Ajji's place. It was my lunch time. So Amma fed me and then I sat near the Ganapathi homa. Alok, Megha, Ashwin (Leela Aunti's children) were looking cute in different type of dress. After the homa, it was Kadubu (Coastal Karnataka version of Idli) lunch. I could hear everyone chomp chomp... I also met Raj Ajja and Rohini Ajji. I said thanks to them for their wonderful swing gift. I like it you know. It makes good (sometimes funny) sound in the middle of all cacophony to relax me and make me sleep.

I slept well till evening but then something happened during the evening pooja. I cried non stop for half an hour and wanted only Pappa to hold me before going back to sleep. Pooja was over and everyone had their dinner. Good food. (Gosh - my parents they can't stop telling about how good the food was at every place we go. They talk about food, food and food. Just teasing them. I too should have my moments. Don't you think)

We all started in a jiffy back to NJ. We had two traffic jams, but made it safe and sound back home by 11:30. I was half asleep. As amma was feeding me, I dozed off dreaming of the beautiful day and making a promise that I would go again to Scranton another day.

Ciao

Legend:
Ganapathi - Elephant headed God
Durga - Goddess
Idli - Rice dumpling
Amma - Mother
Ammamma - Amma's Amma i.e. Grandmother
Ajja - Grandfather
Ajji - Grandmother

One month into this world

Hi there,

So many things happened in the last one month. It is becoming difficult to keep track of things. I had my paediatrician visit. We finally could meet Dr. Sirikonda. He was in India on vacation when I was born. He told amma, something can be given in 6 weeks. I could not hear it clearly. So we will wait and watch.

I had my first outing on Jul 22. We all went to Sri Krishna Brindavana (A temple) in Edison NJ. Dad taught me how to do namaskara to Lord Krishna. First I thought, my head is going to hurt a lot. But that was not the case. All went well. We took God's prasada and drove to Padma Ajji's place. Triveni Kannada koota had organized a send off event to Bhagavathi. I got a chance to see a lot of people. All of them would come near me, look at me and do some koochie koochie things. Some folks would pick me up and hold me for some time and take a walk etc.

When the food was served, looked like pappa and amma forgot about me. Jayanti aunty was carrying me without eating but pappa and amma were busy eating food. I heard pappa comment that the food was really good. So in all, it was a good gathering.

Just a week later, we were back again at Padma ajji's home for ajja's talk. Ajja did a fantastic show based on one of his short story. It was very good. Appa was busy taking pictures, amma shot the video. It was sad to see Padma ajji's leg wrapped in bandage. She apparently has a fracture and will have to use crutches for some time.

Then we met Madhyasta family on Jul 29th. Sri Visveshwara Madhyastha and Smt. Rosemary Madhyastha. Vish ajja is from Siriajja's family and has been in US from 1956. They narrated a lot of their stories. I also met a new friend - Shraavya who is almost as old as I am. Both of us very busy in disturbing our amma's. Amma had to feed me twice while eating her food. But once I ate, I let them eat at peace.

I am waiting for more and more outings now. I like to see new things. Hope pappa's schedule allows him to take me to different places....

Ciao

Legend
Amma - Mother
Ajja - Grandfather
Namaskara - bow to God