Vijayadasami

On the auspicious Vijayadasami Day, at an auspicious time, Anirud prayed to God and with the help of his mom wrote 'OM' and few other Tamil alphabets on the rice spread out on a plate. Though he has been scribbling a lot on the walls already, this is meant to be the beginning of his education and traditionally it would be done with a little ceremony where the child would write few letters on the paddy amidst reciting of slokams. Being in UK, we neither had paddy, nor were we aware of the exact traditional way of doing things. So, we had to settle for 'whatever possible here' approach.

Thengaai Saadham

'Thengaai Saadham' (Coconut Rice) is the flavour of the current season for Anirud. He wants that prepared very often claiming that he likes it very much ('romba romba pudikkum'). On the other day, we were at our friend's place when someone asked Anirud 'What do you like to eat?'. Before they could finish the question, pat came his reply - "enakku thengaai saadham romba romba pudikkum" (I like Coconut Rice very much).

For the moment, 'kadalamuttai' (peanut candy) has taken the back seat.

Chennai Dosa

After taking Anirud to Chennai Dosa restaurant at Wembley quite a few times in the recent months, he seems to have become a fan of that place. All of a sudden, he would ask 'Chennai toosa polaam' (Lets go to Chennai Dosa) and when taken to, he knows what exactly he wants - a plain dosai. He would happily take out pieces of dosa from the plate, put them in his mouth after dipping them in 'geen colour chutney' (Green), 'ettu colour chutney' (Red coloured chutney) and 'sambhar' in such a way that he would not even be able to have a remote sense of taste of those chutneys.

Introduction

Most of the time Anirud sees a kid of his age, he stretches out his hand and mutters, "hello paapa. my name is aninudh". However much we try to cut out the 'paapa' (baby) in the monologue, he mentions that without fail. He is very amused and disappointed when the other kid doesn't respond and runs away.

Thillumullu

Rajini (referred as 'Ashini') is Anirud's favourite hero at the moment. He has watched the movie 'Thillumullu' to his heart's content, but would still want to watch it more often. :)

Get-together

Anirud had a good time at the Deepavali get-together we had organised recently. He never bothered us and so did we, though we kept an eye on him. At one stage, he went missing for few minutes before emerging from behind the curtains. As there were couple of push doors at the venue leading to the exit, that caused some anxious moments before we spotted him.

After the get-together, we came to know from one of our friends that Anirud and one another boy of same age were naughtily trying to climb up the chair and access something kept at a height.

Whining

Of late, Anirud is whining for everything. The moment we say something to correct him, however softer the tone is, tears start to roll down his cheeks and he starts to protest. Basically, he has entered the phase where he doesn't like to be told that he needs to mend his ways. This is a solvable issue and we are not unduly bothered. We are travelling to India in the next 10 days and we expect him to pick up few more bad habits as a result of being coochie-cooed by all and sundry. Once we return to our base, we must start 'Operation Anirud' to set things straight.

Timidity

Whenever he meets any strangers (adults) these days, Anirud puts his head down and hardly looks up. This is a total contrast to the scene few months ago when he was relatively ease in mixing with people. Even now, he is comfortable after about 15 minutes or so and in case there is a child around, he doesn't feel timid.

Bed Time

Anirud has got his own bed now. He calls it fish bed as the quilt and pillow cover has got colourful fishes in them. He has also got a companion in 'Noddy' that most of the days (whenever Anirud remembers) Noddy is made to sleep first at the bed time. The only trouble we have at the moment is Anirud doesn't go to bed on his own. He would like us to put off the lights and sleep as well.

Bank Shop

According to Anirud, every building in the High Street is a shop. So, it means that we have a 'Bank Shop' in our town.

Tesco's Brand Ambassador

Anirud is well suited to be called as the Brand Ambassador for Tesco. He has taken an immense liking for the supermarket (probably coz he is able to say that name properly) that whenever we mention a thing about shopping, he brings in Tesco's name. Also, he is able to recognise Tesco's logo painted anywhere - be it a carry bag, vans, petrol stations, catalogue, buildings etc from any distance and whenever he spots one his face lits up.

Chatter

Anirud is constantly chattering these days. Day by day, his words are becoming clearer and he keeps on talking, especially if we are travelling in a car. Sometimes it becomes a bit difficult to concentrate on the road that we ask him to shut up and feel sorry about that.