Friday, 17 August 2012

Anushka turns 2!

I have been planning this day for a few months. There have been nights when I was awake, and thinking of all the things that we'd do on our little one's birthday. I believe in doing things myself, and that becomes quite a challenge often, like putting streamers, balloons etc. I had no idea that putting streamers along the edges of the ceiling can be such a task! I spent many hours planning how to put them, and imagined for a few more hours as to how will they look like, but my planning failed completely because of the shape of the room, the fans etc! Thank God, Joy was such a sport and my mother-in-law was around to help!

I wanted the birthday to be a simple one, but it had to have all the fun elements. Visiting Sneha Sadan is no plan, it has become a part of our lives. Even before I conceived Anushka, Joy and I had decided that we will visit either an orphanage or an old age home for her birthday, and also have a regular get together with family and friends. It was just by chance we got to know about Sneha Sadan right before Anushka's 1st birthday and we visited there. We didn't have to think or plan anything after meeting everyone; without saying anything Joy and I knew that it is this lovely home that we will visit whenever we want to! In the 1 year we have built a bond with the children and the sisters, and they will always be a part of our lives.

We went to Sneha Sadan in the afternoon as we organised lunch for them. The children decided what they wanted to eat and accordingly, food was ordered. I'm not too keen that Anushka cuts a cake at Sneha Sadan as I don't want to remind the children another time that they don't have parents to take care of them. I know their pain and hurt and regret can never be reduced, but I don't want too add to what's already there. So, the plan was to have another 2 children whose birhdays were in August too to cut the cake along with Anushka... everyone cheered and sang , and it was such a beautiful moment! I hope my Anushka grows up to cherish these extra ordinary moments.













There was an early evening get together with family, and some of my students who Anushka just loves! Anushka loves ducks, her bath time mates! So, Joy suggested that we have a duck shaped cake. After a lot of research we decided on  a Donald Duck cake from Birdy's (our favourite cake shop). It goes without saying that the cake was heavenly to taste!

I always wanted to play the piano while singing the birthday song for my family, but that never happened, and another 1st time experience in my life happened with Anushka!

Here's the video!




Anushka participated during a game of passing-the-parcel by moving her hands and legs, as if she was dancing, while the music played! I think she loves gifting people; that was one thing she thoroughly enjoyed... giving away the return gifts!

Monday, 13 August 2012

Four years of blogging and the Olympics!

I started blogging 4 years ago the day Abhinav Bindra won the first individual gold medal at the Beijing Olympics. I was so happy that my country got a place at the medals tally with a gold medal that I wanted to do something, and I dared to step into blogging! The past 4 years I have blogged about a variety of things that touched my heart, and today I am writing this post as many Indian athletes have touched my heart and their achievements make me happy.

To start with, what a lovely way to mark the last day of Olympics 2012... wrestler Sushil Kumar scripted history in Indian sports by winning medals in 2 consecutive Olympics! My favourites, Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom created history too! I am sure these 2 women will continue to play exceedingly well and make us all proud for a long time to come! Parupalli Kashyap was such a surprise at the Olympics this time! If he continues to play like this then the day isn't far when he too will bag an Olympic medal too! Vijay Kumar, another unsung hero, got a sliver medal - how many of us knew him before he won the medal? Through the 2 weeks there were so many highs, many really disheartening moments, some really disappointing moments, but on the whole, India has done a pretty good job this time at the Olympics. 6 individual medals in 1 Olympics is definitely a fairly encouraging thought. Who knows we may double it up at Rio in 2016!